Diamines are a family of valuable compounds with diverse functions. In many cases, they are not trivial to prepare, particularly when the two nitrogen atoms contain different substituents. In a new study that appears this week on ChemRxiv, our lab in collaboration with scientists from Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) developed a reaction where a free amine can direct regioselective 1,2-carboamination of an unactivated alkene, representing the first time that an unprotected amine has been used to direct three-component alkene difunctionalization. Key to the successful development of this method was judicious tuning of the leaving group on the N–O electrophile such that it possess well-matched reactivity for the corresponding alkyl nickelacycle intermediate. Congrats to Taeo, José, and Zi-Qi, and thanks to our collaborators from BMS, Klement and Peter, for a great collaboration.

For a link to the pre-print, click here: https://chemrxiv.org/engage/chemrxiv/article-details/61b14f9a7ada95b46a6e62ee