Chiral amidophosphane–copper-catalyzed asymmetric conjugate addition of dialkylzinc reagents to nitroalkenes

The copper–amidophosphane-catalyzed asymmetric addition reaction of dialkylzinc reagents with β-aryl and β-alkylnitroalkenes afforded the corresponding nitroalkanes with moderate to good enantioselectivities (54–80% ee). The performance was highly dependent on the reaction procedure where the addition of nitroalkene to the mixture of copper–amidophosphane and dialkylzinc gave higher ee than the addition of dialkylzinc to a mixture of copper–amidophosphane and nitroalkene.