Diamine-catalyzed addition of ZnEt2 to PhC(O)CF3 : two mechanisms and autocatalytic asymmetric enhancement.

NMR spectroscopic studies of the catalytic addition reaction of ZnEt2 to PhC(O)CF3 in the presence of three very efficient catalysts [TMEDA, tBuBOX, and L; where L is a chiral diamine synthesized from optically pure (R,R)-1,2-diphenylethylenediamine and (S)-2,2'-bis-(bromomethyl)-1,1'-binaphthalene] reveal large differences in their behavior. For the ligands TMEDA and tBuBOX, the catalysis shows no unusual features and proceeds via [(NN)Zn(Et){OC(CF3 )(Et)Ph}]. For NNL, the observation of autocatalytic asymmetric enhancement during the catalysis, and unusual inverse concentration dependence on the reaction rate, indicate the participation of an additional novel catalytic cycle that goes through a dinuclear intermediate containing one ZnEt2 and one ZnEt fragment connected by NN and OR bridges. Interestingly, the (19) F NMR signals of the main product of the reaction ([Zn(Et){OC*(CF3 )(Et)Ph}]2 ) allowed us to assess the enantioselectivity of the processes in situ without the assistance of chiral chromatography.