Copper-Catalyzed Enantioselective Acylcyanation of Alkenes

An efficient copper-catalyzed asymmetric vicinal dicarbofunctionalization has been developed for the enantioselective acylcyanation of olefins. The protocol avoids the use of expensive photocatalysts, and showcases a broad substrate scope to afford various β-cyano ketones with very high enantiopurity (up to >99:1 er) and yields (up to 86%). A preliminary mechanistic study has also been conducted, which provided valuable insights into the reaction paths. Furthermore, several functional group transformations in β-cyanoketone have been performed to show the wide synthetic utility of the strategy.