New feats of alkene and alkyne asymmetric hydroamination catalyzed by copper and rhodium hydrides

Hydroamination of unsaturated carbon-carbon bonds is a useful C-N bond forming reaction as it leads to products (amines, imines, enamines) of high synthetic value. While the hydroamination of terminal alkenes and alkynes under metal catalysis has been widely developed, the corresponding reactions with internal substrates remain a challenge. Two recent studies by Buchwald and by Dong which focus on enantioselective hydroamination of internal alkenes and alkynes respectively are of significant importance. [43,44] The results reported broaden the scope of hydroamination as a useful C-N bond forming process and allow acess to chiral amines which are difficult to synthesize by other methods.