Stereospecific Copper-Catalyzed Domino Ring Opening and sp3 C-H Functionalization of Activated Aziridines with N-Alkylanilines.

Copper efficiently catalyzed nucleophilic ring opening, sp3 C-H functionalization, and C-N bond formation in the presence of tert-butyl hydroperoxide to afford functionalized imidazolidines starting from N-sulfonylaziridines and N-alkylanilines. The products were obtained in high optical purities (95 → 99% ee) with excellent functional group tolerance.