Diastereo- and Enantioselective Copper(I)-Catalyzed Intermolecular [3+2] Cycloaddition of Azomethine Ylides with β-Trifluoromethyl β,β-Disubstituted Enones

Reported herein is an asymmetric [3+ 2] cycloaddition reaction of azomethine ylides with beta-trifluoromethyl beta, beta-disubstituted enones, a reaction which is enabled by a Ming-Phos-derived copper(I) catalyst (Ming-Phos = chiral sulfinamide monophosphines, Figure 2). This method provides scalable and efficient access to the highly substituted pyrrolidines with a trifluoromethylated, all-carbon quaternary stereocenter in good yields with up to greater than 20:1 d.r. and 98% ee. The reaction has a broad substrate scope and tolerates a wide range of functional groups.