Chiral primary amine catalysed asymmetric conjugate addition of azoles to α-substituted vinyl ketones

We report here the first effective example of asymmetric conjugate addition-protonation reactions of azoles to vinyl ketones by chiral primary amine catalysis. High enantioselectivity can be easily achieved by screening different primary amine catalysts, and the Curtin-Hammett control in the C-N bond formation step was verified by DFT calculations to account for the observed stereoselectivity.