Enantioselective Dearomatization of Pyridinium Salts by Copper-Catalyzed C4-Selective Addition of Silicon Nucleophiles.

A copper-catalyzed C4-selective addition of silicon nucleophiles released from an Si-B reagent to prochiral pyridinium triflates is reported. The dearomatization proceeds with excellent enantioselectivity using Cu(CHCN)PF as the precatalyst and (R,R)-Ph-BPE (1,2-bis[(2R,5R)-2,5-diphenylphospholan-1-yl]ethane) as the chiral ligand. A carbonyl group at C3 is required for this, likely acting a weak donor group to preorganize and direct the nucleophilic attack towards C4. The resulting 4-silylated 1,4-dihydropyridines can be further converted into functionalized piperidine derivatives.