Highly Enantioselective SPINOL-Derived Phosphoric Acid Catalyzed Transfer Hydrogenation of Diverse C=N-Containing Heterocycles

A highly efficient and enantioselective hydrogenation of diversely substituted C=N-containing heterocyclic compounds such as 3-aryl-1,4-benzoxazines and 2-arylquinolines was experimentally explored by using 1,1′-spirobiindane-7,7′-diol-derived chiral phosphoric acids as the catalyst. This method provides straightforward access to the corresponding tetrahydroquinolines and dihydro-2H-1,4-benzothiazines in high yields (85–99 %) with excellent enantioselectivities (91–99 %). The attractive features of this procedure, which include mild reaction conditions, operational simplicity, relatively low catalyst loading (1 mol-%), and high levels of enantioselectivities, make it a useful approach for the practical synthesis of optically active nitrogen-containing aromatic heterocycles.