Palladium‐Mediated Annulation of Vinyl Aziridines with Michael Acceptors: Stereocontrolled Synthesis of Substituted Pyrrolidines and Its Application in a Formal Synthesis of (−)‐α‐Kainic Acid

Just add salt: Vinyl aziridines have been treated with methyl vinyl ketone or ethyl thioacrylate in the presence of Pd0 to give pyrrolidines with moderate to good diastereoselectivity. The presence of nBu4NCl was critical to successful annulation. The synthetic utility of the methodology has been demonstrated in a short (formal) synthesis of (−)-α-kainic acid. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.