The design of a spiro-pyrrolidine organocatalyst and its application to catalytic asymmetric Michael addition for the construction of all-carbon quaternary centers.

A novel chiral spiro-pyrrolidine silyl ether organocatalyst has been designed. Its catalytic asymmetric effect is demonstrated by the Michael addition reaction, which affords the desired products with an all-carbon quaternary center in up to 99% ee and 87% yield. Furthermore, the reaction process has been investigated via in situ NMR experiments.