A Powerful Chiral Phosphoric Acid Catalyst for Enantioselective Mukaiyama–Mannich Reactions

A new BINOL‐derived chiral phosphoric acid bearing 2,4,6‐trimethyl‐3,5‐dinitrophenyl substituents at the 3,3′‐positions was developed. The utility of this chiral phosphoric acid is demonstrated by a highly enantioselective (ee up to >99 %) and diastereoselective (syn/anti up to >99:1) asymmetric Mukaiyama–Mannich reaction of imines with a wide range of ketene silyl acetals. Moreover, this method was successfully applied to the construction of vicinal tertiary and quaternary stereogenic centers with excellent diastereo‐ and enantioselectivity. Significantly, BINOL‐derived N‐triflyl phosphoramide constitutes a complementary catalyst system that allows the title reaction to be applied to more challenging imines without an N‐(2‐hydroxyphenyl) moiety.