Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.135, No.6, 2100-2103, 2013
Catalytic Asymmetric Protonation of Silyl Ketene Imines
An efficient catalytic and highly enantioselective protonation of silyl ketene imines is described. The reaction is catalyzed by the chiral phosphoric acids TRIP or STRIP in the presence of a stoichiometric amount of methanol as the proton source and silyl acceptor. A variety of substituted racemic silyl ketene imines have been transformed into highly enantioenriched nitriles.