New chiral biscarboline N,N′-dioxide derivatives as catalyst in enantioselective reduction of ketoimines with trichlorosilane

New axial N,N′-dioxide secondary amide derived from l-tryptophan was synthesized and firstly employed in catalytic enantioselective reduction of ketoimines with trichlorosilane. It was found that 4f was an effective catalyst with excellent reactivity and good enantioselectivity. Possible mechanism for the catalytic procedure was tentatively proposed.