LAUSR

A Ni-catalyzed intermolecular enantioselective hydroamination of branched 1,3-dienes is reported. The method is broadly applicable, highly regio-, chemo- and enantioselective and provides direct access to valuable chiral allylic amines starting from linear or α-branched aliphatic primary amines or secondary amines. Mechanistic studies have been conducted using 31P NMR spectroscopy for reaction progress monitoring, isotopic labeling experiments (2H) and kinetic analysis. The resting state of the catalyst is a Ni-π-allyl complex and the outer-sphere nucleophilic attack of H-bonded amine aggregates is proposed to be the rate-determining step. This hypothesis guided the identification of an improved set of reaction conditions for the enantioselective hydroamination of branched 1,3-dienes.