Organocatalytic Asymmetric Conjugate Addition of 3-Alkyl-Substituted Oxindoles to Vinyl Ketones

Abstract

phosphate. 5 Although there have been reports for the catalytic enantioselective conjugate addition reaction of 3-aryl-substituted oxindoles to vinyl ketones, 5 a few examples for the catalytic enantioselective conjugate addition reaction of 3alkyl-substituted oxindoles to cyclic enones were reported using chiral primary or secondary amine catalysts. 6 Therefore, the development of alternative catalysts for the catalytic enantioselective conjugate addition reaction of 3-alkyl-substituted oxindoles to vinyl ketones would be highly desirable. As part of the research program toward the development of synthetic methods for the catalytic carbon-carbon bond formations, 7 we recently reported the organocatalytic conjugate addition reaction to α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds 8 and the other Michael acceptors. 9 In this communications, we wish to describe the enantioselective conjugate addition reaction of prochiral 3-alkyl-substituted oxindoles with vinyl ketones catalyzed by binaphthyl-modified bifunctional organocatalysts bearing both central and axial chiral elements. In an attempt to validate the feasibility of the organocatalytic enantioselective conjugate addition reaction of 3substituted oxindoles, we first investigated the reaction system with 3-benzyl oxindole 1a with methyl vinyl ketone (2a) in the presence of 10 mol % of catalyst in toluene at room temperature. We examined the impact of the structure of catalysts I-IV on enantioselectivities (Table 1, entries 1-4). Quinine-derived thiourea catalyst I was ineffective (Table 1, entriry 1). While binaphthyl-modified chiral bifunctional organocatalysts II-III bearing both central and axial chiral