thiourea and quinone-methide

A chiral thiourea catalyzed asymmetric 1,6-conjugate addition of para-quinone methides with dicyanoolefins has been developed. The reaction provided an efficient approach to the synthesis of chiral diarylmethine skeletons in good yields (up to 99% yield) with high diastereo- and enantioselectivity (>20:1 dr and up to 99.5:0.5 er), also on a gram scale. The preliminary mechanistic study showed that the remote stereocontrol was achieved through intermolecular hydrogen-bond interaction between the chiral thiourea catalyst and the para-quinone methides directly for the first time.

Topics: Catalysis; Cycloparaffins; Hydrogen Bonding; Indolequinones; Molecular Structure; Stereoisomerism; Thiourea