A Stable Route to Selectivity

摘要

In general, the purpose of catalysis is to speed up reactions that otherwise proceed too slowly. Asymmetric catalysis is something of a special case though: When the catalyst's role is to bias a reaction toward one particular product isomer, problems arise if the background reaction is too fast on its own. This circumstance limited a prospectively promising route to chiral allylic amines. Specifically, decades-old chemistry established that adducts of terminal olefins and imido-sulfur compounds quickly rearrange to form carbon-nitrogen bonds.