Chiral Carboxylic Acid Enabled Achiral Rhodium(III)-Catalyzed Enantioselective C-H Functionalization

Reported is an achiral (CpRhIII)-Rh-x/chiral carboxylic acid catalyzed asymmetric C-H alkylation of diarylmethanamines with a diazomalonate, followed by cyclization and decarboxylation to afford 1,4-dihydroisoquinolin-3(2H)-one. Secondary alkylamines as well as nonprotected primary alkylamines underwent the transformation with high enantioselectivities (up to 98.5:1.5 e.r.) by using a newly developed chiral carboxylic acid as the sole source of chirality to achieve enantioselective C-H cleavage by a concerted metalation-deprotonation mechanism.