No abstract

A synthesis of vicinal diamines via in situ aminal formation and carboamination of allyl amines is reported. Employing highly electron-poor trifluoromethyl aldimines in their stable hemiaminal form was key to enable both a fast and complete aminal formation as well as the palladium-catalyzed carboamination step. The conditions developed allow the introduction of a wide variety of alkynyl, vinyl, aryl, and hetereoaryl groups with complete regioselectivity and high diastereoselectivity. The reaction exhibits a high functional-group tolerance. Importantly, either nitrogen atom of the imidazolidine products can be selectively deprotected, while removal of the aminal tether can be achieved in a single step under mild conditions to reveal the free diamine. We expect that this work will promote the further use of mixed aminal tethers in organic synthesis.

A new generation of methods based on in situ tether formation greatly enhances the efficiency and selectivity of olefin functionalization.

The selective palladium-catalyzed carboamination of allylic alcohols is reported on the basis of the use of an easily introduced trifluoroacetaldehyde-derived tether. Aminoalkynylation reactions were realized using alkynyl bromides and commercially available phosphine ligands. For aminoarylations, a new biaryl phosphine ligand, "Fu-XPhos", was introduced to overcome a competitive Heck pathway. The carboamination products were obtained in high yields and diastereoselectivity. The tether could be easily removed to give value-added amino alcohol building blocks.