Simple branched sulfur-olefins as chiral ligands for Rh-catalyzed asymmetric arylation of cyclic ketimines: highly enantioselective construction of tetrasubstituted carbon stereocenters.

New, simple, sulfinamide-based branched olefin ligands have been developed and successfully used in Rh-catalyzed asymmetric arylations of cyclic ketimines, providing efficient and highly enantioselective access to valuable benzosultams and benzosulfamidates containing a stereogenic quaternary carbon center. This is the first example of applying a sulfur-olefin ligand in catalytic asymmetric addition of imines.