Catalytic Asymmetric Addition of Acetonitrile to Aryl Alkyl Ketimines for the Construction of Tetrasubstituted Stereogenic Centers

Nonactivated ketimines remain challenging electrophiles in catalytic asymmetric Mannich-type reactions with simple acetonitrile as a pronucleophile. This study reports a direct catalytic asymmetric addition of acetonitrile to aryl alkyl ketimines enabled by a pincer-type Ni(II) catalyst. The reaction affords β-aminonitriles bearing tetrasubstituted stereogenic centers in good yields and with high enantioselectivities, and the products can be readily transformed into diverse chiral amine derivatives.