Han Zhou, Yaning Wang, Long Zhang, Mao Cai, Sanzhong Luo*

Nucleophilic addition to allenes is one of the most atom-economic approaches for the synthesis of functionlized allylic compounds. A dual chiral primary amine and palladium catalyzed enantioselective terminal addition to allenes with a-branched β-ketocarbonyls and aldehydes. The reactions affords allylic adducts bearing acyclic all-carbon quaternary centers with high regio and enantioselectivity. A wide range of allenes including those aliphatic or 1,1’-disubstituted could be employed, thus expanding the scopes of traditional asymmetric allylic alkylation reactions. 

This work has been published in J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 3631-3634.