Indirect and direct catalytic asymmetric reductive amination of 2-tetralone

Herein we report a one-pot catalytic asymmetric reductive amination of 2-tetralone. High-throughput screening of a small library of chiral ligands allowed us to perform the enantioselective hydrogenation of the intermediate enamine with up to 60% ee and a one-pot reaction with up to 47% enantiomeric excess of the desired amine.

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(2S)-Benzyl-(1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalen-2-yl)amineC17H19NEe 60%[α]D22=-21.5 (c 0.067, CH2Cl2)Source of chirality: asymmetric catalytic aminationAbsolute configuration: (2S)