Palladium-catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylation with an enamine as the nucleophilic reagent

An enamine can serve as a good nucleophile for palladium-catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylation, avoiding the use of an unstablilized ketone enolate formed by strong bases. In the presence of a palladium complex of chiral metallocene-based phosphino-oxazoline ligands, the reaction was carried out smoothly with high catalytic activity and excellent enantioselectivity. Different distances between the two Cp rings of ferrocene and ruthenocene affected the catalytic behavior in the reaction. Furthermore, high catalytic activity and good enantioselectivity were also afforded by the ferrocene-based diphosphine ligands with only planar chirality.