Metallation-substitution of an α-oxygenated chiral nitrile

Deprotonation of a chiral alpha-oxygenated nitrile with the base 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidylmagnesium chloride, TMPMgCl, gives rise to a chiral magnesiated nitrile, and this anion has sufficient configurational stability at low temperature to allow the formation of highly enantiomerically enriched substituted nitrile products after electrophilic quench.

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