The quantum chemical method is employed to study the enantioselective reduction of imine with borane catalyzed by chiral oxazaborolidine. All the structures are optimized completely at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) level. The catalysis property of oxazaborolidine is notable. The reduction goes mainly through the formations of the catalyst-borane adduct, the catalyst-borane-imine adduct, and the catalyst-amidoborane adduct and the dissociation of the catalyst-amidoborane adduct with the regeneration of the catalyst. The controlling step for the reduction is the dissociation of the catalyst-amidoborane adduct. The main reduced product predicted theoretically is (R )-sec- ondary amine, which is in agreement with the experiment.
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