Conjugate additions of Gilman cyanocuprates to (S)-N-amino-2-(methoxymethyl)pyrrolidine (SAMP)-hydrazones 4, 5 derived from cyclic and acyclic a,b-unsaturated ketones were investigated. A protocol utilizing copper(II) sulfate/ammonium chloride was evolved, which allowed cleavage of SAMP (S)-1 under the hydrolysis and work-up conditions, followed by recovery of the auxiliary with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). The enantioselectivity of cuprate additions was dominated for cyclic SAMP-hydrazones 4 by the cuprate alkyl substituent and the ring size, in the case of acyclic arylidene SAMP-hydrazones 5, however, by the nature of the aryl substituent. Electron-donating substituents gave poor enantiomeric excesses, whereas electron-withdrawing groups provided excellent ee values of 98-99%. The configuration of the new stereocenter was determined to be (R). Moreover, a reaction sequence was developed which integrates a tandem 1,4-addition/methylation and traceless hydrolytic cleavage of the auxiliary (S)-1 in a one-pot reaction, resulting in enantiomerically pure methyl ketones 11-13, each of them with > 99% ee.

The method involves both the addition reaction and the cleavage of the hydrazone auxiliary under hydrolysis and work‐up conditions by use of CuSO4/NH4Cl.