Qi Yang, Long Zhang, Chen Ye, Sanzhong Luo,* Li-Zhu Wu* and Chen-Ho Tung

An unprecedented catalytic asymmetric cross-dehydrogenative coupling reaction between tertiary amines and simple ketones via tricatalytic cycles under visible light irradiation. The process is enabled by a simple chiral primary amine catalyst through the coupling of a catalytic enamine intermediate and a iminum intermediate in situ generated from tetrahydroisoquinoline derivatives via coupled Ru/Co catalysis.

This work has been published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 3694-3698.