Chiral Bifunctional Thiourea–Phosphane Organocatalysts in Asymmetric Allylic Amination of Morita–Baylis–Hillman Acetates

A series of new chiral bifunctional thiourea–phosphane catalysts was synthesized and successfully applied in the catalytic, asymmetric allylic amination of Morita–Baylis–Hillman (MBH) acetates derived from the methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) or ethyl vinyl ketone (EVK) system, with phthalimide, affording the amination products in up to over 99 % yield and 90 % ee for a wide range of substrates derived from different aromatic aldehydes.