Cu-Catalyzed Enantioselective Boron Addition to N-Heteroaryl-Substituted Alkenes.

Catalytic enantioselective Cu-B(pin) (pin = pinacolato) addition to N-heteroaryl-substituted alkenes followed by protonation promoted by phosphine-Cu complexes is presented. The resulting alkylboron products that contain a N-heteroaryl moiety are afforded in up to 97% yield and 99:1 enantiomeric ratio. The highly versatile C-B(pin) bond can be converted to a range of useful functional groups, delivering a variety of enantiomerically enriched building blocks that are otherwise difficult to access.

Phosphine-Catalyzed Asymmetric Umpolung Addition of Trifluoromethyl Ketimines to Morita-Baylis-Hillman Carbonates.

A novel phosphine-catalyzed, highly enantioselective umpolung addition of trifluoromethyl ketimines to Morita-Baylis-Hillman carbonates was developed and it provides facile access to optically active trifluoromethyl amines with a chiral tertiary stereocenter under mild reaction conditions. The salient features of this reaction include general substrate scope, mild reaction conditions, good yields, high enantioselectivity, ease of scale-up to gram scale, and further transformations of the products.

Asymmetric Construction of 2,3-Dihydroisoxazoles via an Organocatalytic Formal [3 + 2] Cycloaddition of Enynes with N-Hydroxylamines.

An organocatalytic asymmetric formal [3 + 2] cycloaddition of enynones with N-hydroxylamines has been described. A newly designed multifunctional organocatalyst was found to be highly effective, and the method allowed the synthesis of a variety of 2,3-dihydroisoxazoles in good yields with excellent enantioselectivity.

A simple base-mediated synthesis of diverse functionalized ring-fluorinated 4H-pyrans via double direct C-F substitutions.

A straightforward and efficient approach to structurally diverse and synthetically useful ring-fluorinated 4H-pyrans via a simple base-mediated cascade reaction of readily available trifluoromethylated alkenes with 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds was developed. The key events of this reaction involve two consecutive C-F substitutions under very mild conditions.