Photoinduced, Copper-Catalyzed Enantioconvergent Alkylations of Anilines by Racemic Tertiary Electrophiles: Synthesis and Mechanism

Transition-metal catalysis of substitution reactions of alkyl electrophiles by nitrogen nucleophiles is beginning to emerge as a powerful strategy for synthesizing higher-order amines, as well as controlling their stereochemistry. Herein, we report that a readily accessible chiral copper catalyst (commercially available components) can achieve the photo-induced, enantioconvergent coupling of a variety of racemic tertiary alkyl electrophiles with aniline nucleophiles to generate a new C-N bond with good ee at the fully substituted stereocenter of the product; whereas this photoinduced, copper-catalyzed coupling proceeds at -78 degrees C, in the absence of light and catalyst, virtually no C-N bond formation is observed even upon heating to 80 degrees C. The mechanism of this new catalytic enantioconvergent substitution process has been interrogated with the aid of a wide array of tools, including the independent synthesis of proposed intermediates and reactivity studies, spectroscopic investigations featuring photophysical and EPR data, and DFT calculations. These studies led to the identification of three copper-based intermediates in the proposed catalytic cycle, including a chiral three-coordinate formally copper(II)-anilido (DFT analysis points to its formulation as a copper(I)-anilidyl radical) complex that serves as a persistent radical that couples with a tertiary organic radical to generate the desired C-N bond with good enantioselectivity.

Automated summary

Transition-metal catalysis of substitution reactions of alkyl electrophiles by nitrogen nucleophiles is an important strategy for synthesizing higher-order amines and controlling their stereochemistry. This study reports the photo-induced enantioconvergent coupling of racemic tertiary alkyl electrophiles with aniline nucleophiles using a readily accessible chiral copper catalyst. The mechanism of this catalytic process has been elucidated using various tools, leading to the identification of key copper-based intermediates in the proposed cycle.