Bifunctional primary amine 2-aminobenzimidazole organocatalyst anchored to trans-cyclohexane-1,2-diamine in enantioselective conjugate additions of aldehydes

Bifunctional chiral primary amine 8 containing an (S,S)-trans-cyclohexane-1,2-diamine scaffold and a 2-benzimidazole unit is used as a general organocatalyst for the Michael addition of α,α-branched aldehydes to nitroalkenes and maleimides. The reactions take place, with 20 mol % of catalyst in dichloromethane at rt for nitroalkenes and with 15 mol % catalyst loading in toluene at 10 °C for maleimides, in good yields and enantioselectivities. DFT calculations demonstrate the bifunctional character of this organocatalyst activating the aldehyde by enamine formation and the Michael acceptor by double hydrogen bonding.The Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) (projects CTQ2010-20387, and Consolider Ingenio 2010, CSD2007-00006), the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) (projects CTQ2013-43446-P and CTQ2014-51912-REDC), FEDER, the Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO 2009/039 and PROMETEOII/2014/017), the Basque Government (GV Grant IT-291-07), the FP7 Marie Curie Actions of the European Commission via the ITN ECHONET network (MCITN-2012-316379) and the Universities of Alicante and Basque Country are gratefully acknowledged for financial support. We also thank for technical and human support provided by IZO-SGI SGIker of UPV-EHU and European funding (ERDF and ESF). Financial support from Brazilian agencies CAPES-DGU (Project 200/09), CNPq, FAPERJ and UFRJ are also acknowledged. A. O. M. thanks MINECO for a FPI fellowship (BES-2014-069695)