Highly flexible synthesis of chiral azacycles via iridium-catalyzed hydrogenation.

A range of saturated chiral azacycles has been prepared in high yield and with high selectivity from simple starting materials. A modular approach with ring-closing metathesis as a key step was used to produce a number of five-, six-, and seven-membered cyclic alkenes. Asymmetric hydrogenation catalyzed by N,P-ligated iridium complexes gave saturated azacycles in high optical purity. This methodology was demonstrated in the synthesis of a pharmaceutical precursor.