Development of a tailor-made bis(oxazolidine)pyridine-metal catalyst for the [3+2] cycloaddition of azomethine imines with propiolates.

A series of bis(oxazolidine)pyridine ligands (the PyBodines) were newly designed and synthesized for the development of a highly efficient, tailor-made catalyst for the [3+2] cycloaddition of azomethine imines with propiolates. The PyBodine(l-Ala)-Cu(OAc)2 catalyst was selected on the basis of solid-phase catalysis/CD-HTS and exhibited high efficiency, producing the (R)-adducts with excellent enantioselectivity.