Rhodium-catalyzed regio- and enantioselective amination of racemic secondary allylic trichloroacetimidates with N-methyl anilines.

We report the chiral diene ligated rhodium-catalyzed dynamic kinetic asymmetric transformation (DYKAT) of racemic secondary allylic trichloroacetimidates with a variety of N-methyl anilines, providing allylic N-methyl arylamines in high yields, regioselectivity, and enantiomeric excess. The rhodium-catalyzed DYKAT method addresses limitations previously associated with this particular class of aromatic nitrogen nucleophiles.