Copper-catalysed selective hydroamination reactions of alkynes

The development of selective reactions that utilize easily available and abundant precursors for the efficient synthesis of amines is a long-standing goal of chemical research. Despite the centrality of amines in a number of important research areas, including medicinal chemistry, total synthesis and materials science, a general, selective and step-efficient synthesis of amines is still needed. Here, we describe a set of mild catalytic conditions utilizing a single copper-based catalyst that enables the direct preparation of three distinct and important amine classes (enamines, α-chiral branched alkylamines and linear alkylamines) from readily available alkyne starting materials with high levels of chemo-, regio- and stereoselectivity. This methodology was applied to the asymmetric synthesis of ​rivastigmine and the formal synthesis of several other pharmaceutical agents, including ​duloxetine, ​atomoxetine, ​fluoxetine and ​tolterodine.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (GM58160

Enantio- and Regioselective CuH-Catalyzed Hydroamination of Alkenes

A highly enantio- and regioselective copper-catalyzed hydroamination reaction of alkenes has been developed using diethoxymethylsilane and esters of hydroxylamines. The process tolerates a wide variety of substituted styrenes, including trans-, cis-, and β,β-disubstituted styrenes, to yield α-branched amines. In addition, aliphatic alkenes coupled to generate exclusively the anti-Markovnikov hydroamination products.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Award GM58160