Facile Synthesis of Optically Pure 1,2-Diaryl (and 1-Alkyl-2-aryl) Ethyl and Propylamines

A concise high-yielding route to synthetically useful 1,2-diaryl (and 1-alkyl-2-aryl) ethyl and propylamines in high enantiomeric purity is described. The key step of this route is the completely stereoselective addition of lithium (R)-ortho-(p-toluenesulfinyl)benzylic carbanions to (S)-N-p-toluenesulfinylimines, which takes place in very high or quantitative yields. N-Desulfinylation and C-desulfinylation of the resulting adducts can be achieved with no loss of optical purity employing conventional methods (TFA and Raney-Ni, respectively).