Aza-Michael reactions between primary aliphatic and aromatic amines and various Michael acceptors have been performed under environmentally-friendly solventless conditions using acidic alumina as a heterogeneous catalyst to selectively obtain the corresponding mono-adducts in high yields. Ethyl acrylate was the main acceptor used, although others such as acrylonitrile, methyl acrylate and acryl...

Phosphine-boronates R(2)P(o-C(6)H(4))B(OR')(2) have been evaluated as bifunctional organocatalysts for the Michael addition of malonate pronucleophiles to methylvinylketone. The presence of the Lewis acidic boron center adjacent to phosphorus significantly improves catalytic performance. Isolation and complete characterization of a key intermediate, namely a β-phosphonium enolate, substantiate ...

A new enzymatic process is described. Different preparations of lipase B from Candida antarctica are able to catalyse Michael-type addition of secondary amines to acrylonitrile. This new reaction widens the applicability of these biocatalysts in organic synthesis.

To map out the efficient organocatalyst requirements in the Michael addition of 1,3-dicarbonyl indane compounds to nitrostyrenes, a dozen different amino organocatalysts containing a p-toluenesulfonyl group (Ts) have been evaluated; excellent enantio-selectivities (up to er 92:8) were obtained with a primary amine-based Ts-DPEN catalyst and a plausible catalytic reaction mechanism was proposed ...

Chiral derivatives of γ-aminobutyric acid are widely used as medicines and can be obtained by organocatalytic Michael additions. We show here the stereoselective synthesis of 4-methylpregabalin stereoisomers using a Michael addition of dimethyl malonate to a racemic nitroalkene. The key step of the synthesis operates as a kinetic resolution with a chiral squaramide catalyst. Furthermore, specif...

The gold(I)/silver(I)-cocatalyzed cascade intermolecular N-Michael addition/intramolecular hydroalkylation reaction offers a simple and efficient method for the synthesis of pyrrolidine derivatives in moderate to excellent product yields and with moderate to good diastereoselectivities. The reaction conditions and the substrate scope of this reaction are examined, and a possible mechanism invol...