Regulation of orthogonal functions in a dual catalyst system. Subservient role of a nonchiral Lewis acid in an asymmetric catalytic heteroatom Diels-Alder reaction.

Attempts to develop chiral catalysts for asymmetric reactions of imines must confront the problem that the product is more basic than the starting imine, thus leading to difficulty in turnover.1 A scenario in which both turnover and asymmetric induction could be realized would involve two catalysts, one chiral and one nonchiral (eq 1). If the nonchiral catalyst was in excess, then it could free up the chiral catalyst to turn over the reaction. Asymmetric induction could be achieved if the chiral catalyst has a larger binding constant than the nonchiral catalyst for imine 1 or if the chiral catalyst promotes the reaction at a sufficiently greater rate that it can overcome its molar disadvantage, or if both were to pertain. We report here the discovery of such a two-catalyst system where at least 20 turnovers can be achieved in a heteroatom Diels-Alder reaction with no loss of induction. This type of dual-Lewis acid catalyst system with orthogonal functions is to our knowledge unprecedented.2,3