A chiral primary amine thiourea catalyst for the highly enantioselective direct conjugate addition of α,α-disubstituted aldehydes to nitroalkenes

(Chemical Equation Presented) Dual activation: The bifunctional primary amine thiourea catalyst 1 promotes the highly enantioselective direct conjugate addition of α-branched aldehydes to nitroalkenes (see scheme). Cooperative activation of both the nucleophile and electrophile allows the use of mild reaction conditions and provides access to a wide variety of adducts with vicinal quaternary and tertiary stereogenic centers (>90% ee). © 2006 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.