Palladium(0) and Brønsted Acid Co‐catalyzed Enantioselective Hydro‐Cyclization of 2,4‐Dienyl Hydrazones and Oximes

Abstract

The transition metal‐catalyzed asymmetric hydro‐functionalization of 1,3‐dienes has been well explored, but most reactions focus on electron‐neutral substrates in an intermolecular manner. Here we first demonstrate that readily available 2,4‐dienyl hydrazones and oximes can be efficiently utilized in the hydro‐cyclization reaction under co‐catalysis of a Brønsted acid and a chiral palladium complex, furnishing multifunctional dihydropyrazones and dihydroisoxazoles, respectively. Diverse substitution patterns for both types of electron‐deficient diene compounds are tolerated, and corresponding heterocycles were generally constructed with moderate to excellent enantioselectivity, which can be elaborated to access products with higher molecular complexity and diversity. Control experiments and density functional theory calculations support that α‐regioselective protonation of dienyl substrates by acid and concurrent π‐Lewis base activation of Pd0 complex is energetically favoured in the formation of active π‐allylpalladium intermediates, and an outer‐sphere allylic amination or etherification mode is adopted to deliver the observed cyclized products enantioselectively.