Chiral-at-Ruthenium Catalyst Does the Job: Access to Enantioenriched 2-Imidazolidinones

Abstract

Catalytic and enantioselective ring-closing C(sp3)‒H amidation of urea derivatives has been unexplored. In this issue of Chem, Meggers and co-workers address this challenge by using a chiral-at-ruthenium catalyst to obtain cyclic 2-imidazolidinones in a highly enantioselective manner. The latter can be converted to chiral vicinal diamines without appreciable loss of enantiopurity.