Unravelling a new class of chiral organocatalyst for asymmetric ring-opening reaction of meso epoxides with anilines.

Chiral sulfinamide based organocatalyst 11 was synthesized from readily available starting materials and used for the asymmetric ring-opening (ARO) reaction of meso epoxides with anilines. A high yield (up to 95%) of chiral β-amino alcohols with excellent enantioselectivity (ee up to 99%) was achieved in 24-30 h at rt under optimized reaction conditions. A probable mechanism for the catalytic ARO reaction is envisaged by (1)H and (13)C NMR experiments.