Highly enantio- and diastereoselective organocatalytic domino Michael-aldol reactions of β-diketone and β-ketosulfone nucleophiles with α,β-unsaturated ketones

A chiral imidazolidine catalyst was shown to catalyze the highly enantio- and diastereoselective domino Michael-aldol reaction of beta-diketone and beta-ketosulfone derivatives with alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones to form optically active cyclohexanones having three or four contiguous chiral centers. The Michael-aldol adducts were formed as single diastereomers in up 99% ee.