Asymmetric Conjugate Addition of Vinyl Arene-Derived Chiral Benzylcopper Nucleophiles

We report the copper-catalyzed asymmetric conjugate addition of vinyl arene-derived nucleophiles to α,β-unsaturated diesters. Due to the high electrophilicity of α,β-unsaturated diesters toward nucleophilic copper catalysts, inclusion of vinyl arenes as pronucleophiles is challenging due to chemoselectivity issues in a multicomponent reaction compared with those of other successful examples of dienes, allenes, and enynes. In this method, chemoselective in situ generation of a chiral benzylic copper intermediate and its stereoselective addition to α,β-unsaturated diesters provided organoboron adducts with contiguous stereogenic centers with good levels of diastereoselectivity and enantioselectivity (≤85:15 diastereomeric ratio and 99% enantiomeric excess, respectively).