Cyanoacetates, asymmetric conjugate addition

Asymmetric conjugate addition of a-substituted-oc-cyanoacetates 77 to acetylenic esters under phase-transfer conditions is somewhat of a challenge, because of the difficulty encountered in controlling the stereochemistry of the product. In addition, despite numerous examples of the conjugate additions to alkenoic esters, no successful asymmetric conjugate additions to acetylenic esters have been reported to date. In this context, Maruoka and coworkers recently developed a new morpholine-derived phase-transfer catalyst (S)-76 and applied it to the asymmetric conjugate additions of a-alkyl-a-cyanoacetates 77 to acetylenic esters, as indicated in Table 5.11 [40], In this asymmetric transformation, an all-carbon quaternary stereocenter can be constructed with a high enantiomeric purity. 

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