A diastereo- and enantio-selective domino Michael-cyclization-tautomerization reaction of isatylidene malononitriles with α,α-dicyanoalkenes catalyzed by a cinchona alkaloid-derived bifunctional thiourea catalyst has been developed. A series of multi-functionalized spiro oxindole diene derivatives have been obtained in good to excellent yields (up to 97%) with good to excellent enantioselectivities (up to 96%) as well as good diastereoselectivities (up to 7.9 : 1). In addition, an anomalous temperature effect on the enantioselectivity has also been studied for this transformation.

The spirocyclic pyrazolones are an important class of molecular structures with significant biological and pharmaceutical activities. Herein, we demonstrate that the combination of a Cinchonabased chiral primary amine and an ortho-fluorobenzoic acid is an efficient catalyst system for the double Michael addition of arylidenepyrazolones with a,b-unsaturated ketones, providing chiral unsymmetrical 6,10-diaryl-substituted spiro[cyclohex-A C H T U N G T R E N N U N G anone-pyrazolone] derivatives in high yields (up to 98%) with good diastereoselectivities and excellent enantioselectivities (up to 88:12 dr, 99% ee).

Optically active β‐hydroxy sulfonamides and β‐hydroxy sulfones are very important building blocks for the preparation of bioactive compounds and pharmaceuticals. In this work, a highly efficient asymmetric hydrogenation of β‐keto sulfonamides and β‐keto sulfones has been developed using the phosphine‐free chiral ruthenium complex Ru(OTf)(TsDPEN)(η6‐p‐cymene) as the catalyst, to afford the corresponding β‐hydroxy sulfonamides and β‐hydroxy sulfones in high yields with excellent optical purities. In addition, a cascade asymmetric hydrogenation/dynamic kinetic resolution (DKR) of racemic cyclic β‐keto sulfonamides and β‐keto sulfones was also realized using the same catalyst, to give the corresponding chiral cyclic β‐hydroxy sulfonamides and β‐hydroxy sulfones in good yields with excellent enantio‐ and diastereoselectivities.magnified image

The tandem oxo-Michael-IED/HDA and oxo-Michael-IED/HDA-Michael-Aldol condensation transformations between (E)-2-hydroxyaryl-2-oxobut-3-enoate derivatives with enals have been developed in the presence of (S)-diphenylprolinol trimethylsilyl ether as an organocatalyst. Two types of tricyclic chroman derivatives were, respectively, obtained, by adjusting the reactant ratio and reaction temperature, in good yields (up to 96%) with excellent enantioselectivities (up to >99%) and good diastereoselectivities (up to >30/1). It should be noted that the divergent chiral chroman derivatives were obtained by successive reaction of (E)-2-hydroxyaryl-2-oxobut-3-enoate derivatives with two different enal substrates in highly catalytic results.

SummaryThe catalytic synthesis of nitrogen-containing heterocycles is of great importance to medicinal and synthetic chemists, and also a challenge for modern chemical methodology. In this paper, we report the synthesis of pyrazolidine derivatives through a domino aza-Michael/hemiacetal sequence with chiral or achiral secondary amines as organocatalysts. Thus, a series of achiral pyrazolidine derivatives were obtained with good yields (up to 90%) and high diastereoselectivities (>20:1) with pyrrolidine as an organocatalyst, and enantioenriched pyrazolidines are also achieved with good results (up to 86% yield, >10/1 regioselectivity, >20:1 dr, 99% ee) in the presence of (S)-diphenylprolinol trimethylsilyl ether catalyst.