Chiral amidophosphane-copper-catalyzed asymmetric conjugate addition of dialkylzinc reagents to nitroalkenes

The copper-amidophosphane-catalyzed asymmetric addition reaction of dialkylzinc reagents with β-aryl and β-alkylnitroalkenes afforded the corresponding nitroalkanes with moderate to good enantioselectivities (54-80% ee). The performance was highly dependent on the reaction procedure where the addition of nitroalkene to the mixture of copper-amidophosphane and dialkylzinc gave higher ee than the addition of dialkylzinc to a mixture of copper-amidophosphane and nitroalkene.