Chiral, saturated N-heterocycles are prized as pharmaceutical agents and chiral auxiliaries, but are challenging to access without using prefunctionalized starting materials. Now, chiral phosphoric acids are found to enable the enantioselective Pd(II)-catalysed arylation of α-methylene C–H bonds in a wide variety of amines using thioamide as the directing group.
- Pankaj Jain
- Pritha Verma
- Jin-Quan Yu