Catalytic Enantioselective Cyano‐Trifluoromethylation of Styrenes

Abstract

AbstractReported herein is the catalytic enantioselective cyano‐trifluoromethylation of styrenes allowing a straightforward preparation of a new structural class of fluorine‐containing compounds. We demonstrate that the desired transformation can be successfully realized using catalytic system of Cu(II)/chiral bidentate bis(oxazoline) ligand, TMS‐CN and Togni reagents, as sources of the CN and CF3 groups, respectively. Preliminary results strongly suggest synthetic potential of this method as the target cyano‐trifluoromethylated products can be generally obtained with high chemical yields (59‐90 %) and excellent enantiomeric purity (91‐98 % ee).