Cu-Catalyzed Highly Selective Ritter-Type Reaction of Enaminonitriles with Cycloketoxime Esters: A Direct Route to Diverse α-Tertiary Amines.

Significant progress has been made in recent years in Ritter-type reactions, particularly in developing diverse pathways for carbocation generation. However, most existing methods rely on stoichiometric oxidants or expensive reagents and are limited in nitrile scope. Herein, we report a highly selective Ritter-type reaction between enaminonitriles and oxime esters. This method provides efficient access to diversely functionalized, sterically congested α-tertiary amines (ATAs) under mild conditions with excellent selectivity, addressing key limitations of previous approaches.