Visible Light Induced Copper‐Catalyzed Enantioselective Deaminative Arylation of Amino Acid Derivatives Assisted by Phenol

Abstract The exploration of value‐added conversions of naturally abundant amino acids has received considerable attention from the synthetic community. Compared with the well‐established asymmetric decarboxylative transformation, the asymmetric deaminative transformation of amino acids still remains a formidable challenge, mainly due to the lack of effective strategies for the C−N bond activation and the potential incompatibility with chiral catalysts. Here, we disclose a photoinduced Cu‐catalyzed asymmetric deaminative coupling reaction of amino acids with arylboronic acids. This new protocol provides a series of significant chiral phenylacetamides in generally good yields and excellent stereoselectivity under mild and green conditions (42–85 % yields, up to 97 % ee). Experimental investigations and theoretical calculations were performed to reveal the crucial role of additional phenols in improving catalytic efficiency and enantiocontrol.