The mechanism of the organocatalytic Cope rearrangement is elucidated through a combined computational and experimental approach. As reported previously, hydrazides catalyze the Cope rearrangement of 1,5-hexadiene-2-carboxaldehydes via iminium ion formation, and seven- and eight-membered ring catalysts are more active than smaller ring sizes. In the present work, quantum mechanical computations and kinetic isotope effect experiments demonstrate that the Cope rearrangement step, rather than iminium formation, is rate-limiting. The computations further explain how the hydrazide catalyst lowers the free-energy barrier of the Cope rearrangement via an associative transition state that is stabilized by enehydrazine character. The computations also explain the catalyst ring size effect, as larger hydrazide rings are able to accommodate optimal transition-state geometries that minimize the unfavorable lone-pair repulsion between neighboring nitrogen atoms and maximize the favorable hyperconjugative donation from each nitrogen atom into neighboring electron-poor sigma bonds, with the seven-membered catalyst achieving a nearly ideal transition-state geometry that is comparable to that of an unconstrained acyclic catalyst. Experimental kinetics studies support the computations, showing that the seven-membered and acyclic hydrazide catalysts react 10 times faster than the six-membered catalyst. Unraveling the mechanism of this reaction is an important step in understanding other reactions catalyzed by hydrazides, and explaining the ring size effect is critical because cyclic catalysts provide a constrained scaffold, enabling the development of asymmetric variants of these reactions.

Ethyl diazepane carboxylate efficiently catalyzes the Diels–Alder cycloaddition of α‐substituted‐α,β‐unsaturated aldehydes via iminium ion organocatalysis. The reaction is applicable to a range of dienes and dienophiles and generally proceeds at room temperature in the presence of 5 mol‐% catalyst and 2.5 mol‐% triflic acid co‐catalyst. The incorporation of a stereogenic center on the diazepane backbone in combination with a menthyl carbamate produces a catalyst which affords enantioselectivities of 70–95 % ee for the cycloaddition of cyclopentadiene with a range of dienophiles. The enantioselectivity is rationalized via a transition state in which electrostatic stabilization by the carboxylate directs the diene to the more hindered face of the dienophile.