Enantioselective Synthesis of Chiral Amides by a Phosphoric Acid Catalyzed Asymmetric Wolff Rearrangement**

Abstract

AbstractThe enantioselective addition of potent nucleophiles to ketenes poses challenges due to competing background reactions and poor stereocontrol. Herein, we present a method for enantioselective phosphoric acid catalyzed amination of ketenes generated from α‐aryl‐α‐diazoketones. Upon exposure to visible light, the diazoketones undergo Wolff rearrangement to generate ketenes. The phosphoric acid not only accelerates ketene capture by amines to form a single configuration of aminoenol intermediates but also promotes an enantioselective proton‐transfer reaction of the intermediates to yield the products. Mechanistic studies elucidated the reaction pathway and explained how the catalyst expedited the transformation and controlled the enantioselectivity.