Dr. Pengfei Zhou of the Malcolmson Lab, in collaboration with former Malcolmson Lab postdoc Dr. Xinxin Shao, now an assistant professor at Hangzhou Normal University, have developed a new reagent class, 2-azatrienes, that enables the diastereodivergent and enantioselective synthesis of allylic 1,2-diamines through copper-catalyzed reductive couplings with imines. Both syn- and anti-diamines are key fragments in a number of potent bioactive molecules and are each formed selectively in their respective CuH-promoted reactions by the action of two different phosphine ligands. A series of mechanistic studies reveal key aspects of allyl–copper dynamic behavior in the system plus a change in stereodetermining step that occurs with each catalyst and which depends on imine electronics. Read more about this work in The Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Chemistry
