Efficient Construction of Novel C3-Silyl Substituted Chiral Proline Catalysts

Abstract

In order to apply the C-H activation strategy to the development of chiral organic catalysts, two novel C3-trimethylsilyl substituted chiral proline catalysts are designed and synthesized using L-proline as the starting material and C(sp 3)-H silylation as the key step, which are applied to the asymmetric aldol reaction of p-nitrobenzaldehyde with acetone and the asymmetric Mannich reaction of imine with β-methylbutyraldehyde, respectively. Both target products can be synthesized with a good enantioselectivity. This strategy effectively enriches the means of structural modification of proline and provids a new method for the development of new silicon-containing organic catalysts.

Keywords

• c(sp 3)-h silylation
• proline
• organic catalysis