Highly Selective Addition of a Broad Spectrum of Trimethylsilane Pro-nucleophiles to N-tert-Butanesulfinyl Imines.

Abstract

Addition of organotrimethylsilane reagents to chiral N-tert-butanesulfinyl imines can be achieved in good yields and with excellent diastereoselectivities by employing TMSO(-)/Bu4N(+) as a Lewis base activator in THF. A variety of aliphatic, aromatic, heteroaromatic and organometallic chiral imines were utilised as electrophiles for the synthesis of enantioenriched N-tert-butanesulfinyl amides. Remarkably, the same sets of reaction conditions could be used with a highly diverse range of bench-stable organotrimethylsilane reagents, which highlights the generality and robustness of this methodology.