Enantioselective synthesis of fused heterocycles with contiguous stereogenic centers by chiral phosphoric acid catalyzed symmetry breaking.

Described herein is a highly enantioselective synthesis of fused piperidine and pyrrolidine derivatives with all-carbon stereogenic centers. The enantioselective reductive amination from C(s)-symmetric 1,3-dione derivatives proceeded in a highly stereoselective manner by taking advantage of the desymmetrization approach to afford fused heterocycles with contiguous stereogenic centers in good to excellent enantioselectivities (up to 98% ee).