Chiral Brønsted Acid as a True Catalyst: Asymmetric Mukaiyama Aldol and Hosomi–Sakurai Allylation Reactions

Highly diastereo- and enantioselective Mukaiyama aldol reaction catalyzed by a new chiral Brønsted acid, N-(perfluorooctanesulfonyl)thiophosphoramide, is described. The perfluorooctyl substituent on the sulfonyl group of the catalyst plays an essential role in the stereoselection. The catalyst also allows the asymmetric Hosomi-Sakurai allylation, which has been considerably challenging due to the low reactivity of allylsilanes. (29)Si and (31)P NMR monitoring reveals the characteristic feature of the thiophosphoramide catalyst, acting as a strong Brønsted acid even in the presence of excess silyl nucleophiles, which cannot be found in other related phosphoric acid analogues.