Organocatalytic Asymmetric α-Selenenylation of Aldehydes

Enamine activation concept has been successfully extended to the asymmetric introduction of Selenium-based compounds into aldehydes. The main features of this novel organocatalytic transformation rely on the high levels of reaction efficiency and stereocontrol (ee ranging from 95% to 99%) obtained using easily available chiral secondary amines along with the high synthetic utility of the chiral alfa-seleno aldehydes, versatile chiral intermediates for a variety of different synthetic transformations