Development of efficient and effective rate acceleration systems in organocatalysis

Catalysts that can promote acyl transfer processes are important for enantioselective synthesis and their development has received significant attention in recent years. Very recently, we developed a method for the synthesis of chiral DMAP derivatives starting from an α-amino acid as a chiral source using a diastereoselective Ugi multicomponent reaction, and the protocol allowed us to access a variety of chiral catalysts in a one-step and one-pot manner. Such catalysts could be applied to various enantioselective acyl transfer reactions. In addition, we also reported a conceptually new type of kinetic resolution of secondary alcohols with a chiral phosphoric acid for the first time. Finally, we developed a binaphthyl-based chiral DMAP derivatives utilizing H-bonding interactions for enantioselective intra- and intermolecular acyl transfer reactions with high enantio-selectivity. tert-Alcohol units of the catalyst play important roles in the acceleration of the rate of the reaction and achieving high enantioselectivity.