Rh-Catalyzed diastereo- and linear-selective α-allylation of chiral cycloenamines

In this paper, a Rh-catalyzed diastereoselective α-allylation of cycloenamines is demonstrated. During the reaction, commercially available Wilkinson's catalyst was employed, and a chiral sulfinamide group acted as the chiral directing group. Following such a synthetic method, unusual linear substituted products were achieved, instead of branched substituted products which were most reported previously. The reaction exhibits a good chemical yield and excellent diastereoselectivity. A possible reaction mechanism was proposed. The method should be conducive to synthesizing natural products and novel drug molecules.