Chiral (OC)Ru(salen)-catalyzed tandem sulfimidation and [2,3]sigmatropic rearrangement: asymmetric CN bond formation

Asymmetric CN bond formation was achieved in a highly enantioselective manner by using (OC)Ru(salen)-catalyzed sulfimidation and the subsequent [2,3]sigmatropic rearrangement: treatment of allyl aryl sulfides with p-toluenesulfonyl azide in the presence of a catalytic amount of (OC)Ru(salen) followed by hydrolysis of the resulting N-allyl-N-arylthio toluenesulfonamides provided N-allyl toluenesulfonamides of high enantiomeric excess.