Acyclic quaternary centers from asymmetric conjugate addition of alkylzirconium reagents to linear trisubstituted enones

hydrozirconation of alkenes with the Schwartz reagent can be introduced, giving linear products bearing quaternary centres with up to 98% ee. The method is tolerant of several important functional groups and 27 total examples are reported. The method uses a new chiral nonracemic phosphoramidite ligand in a complex with copper triflate as the catalyst. This work allows the straightforward stereocontrolled formation of a valuable structural motif using only a catalytic amount of chiral reagent.