Enantioselective Intermolecular Addition of Aliphatic Amines to Acyclic Dienes with a Pd–PHOX Catalyst

We report a method for the catalytic, enantioselective intermolecular addition of aliphatic amines to acyclic 1,3-dienes. In most cases, reactions proceed efficiently at or below room temperature in the presence of 5 mol % of a Pd catalyst bearing a PHOX ligand, generating allylic amines in up to 97:3 er. The presence of an electron-deficient phosphine within the ligand not only leads to a more active catalyst but also is critical for achieving high site selectivity in the transformation.