Science, Vol.349, No.6243, 62-66, 2015
Catalytic asymmetric hydroamination of unactivated internal olefins to aliphatic amines
Catalytic assembly of enantiopure aliphatic amines from abundant and readily available precursors has long been recognized as a paramount challenge in synthetic chemistry. Here, we describe a mild and general copper-catalyzed hydroamination that effectively converts unactivated internal olefins-an important yet unexploited class of abundant feedstock chemicals-into highly enantioenriched a-branched amines (>= 96% enantiomeric excess) featuring two minimally differentiated aliphatic substituents. This method provides a powerful means to access a broad range of advanced, highly functionalized enantioenriched amines of interest in pharmaceutical research and other areas.