2-Hydroxybenzophenone as a Chemical Auxiliary for the Activation of Ketiminoesters for Highly Enantioselective Addition to Nitroalkenes under Bifunctional Catalysis.

An organocatalytic system is presented for the Michael addition of monoactivated glycine ketimine ylides with a bifunctional catalyst. The ketimine bears an ortho hydroxy group, which increases the acidity of the methylene hydrogen atoms and enhances the reactivity, thus allowing the synthesis of a large variety of α,γ-diamino acid derivatives with excellent stereoselectivity.