Palladium/Lewis Acid Cocatalyzed Reductive Asymmetric Ring-Opening Reaction of Azabenzonorbornadienes with Tertiary Amines as the Hydrogen Source

The reductive asymmetric ring-opening reaction of azabenzonorbornadienes has been developed by using palladium and silver as a co-catalytic system and various tertiary amines as the hydrogen source. A wide range of azabenzonorbornadienes that contain electron-donating and electron-withdrawing substituents performed well in the developed protocol to result in 1,2-dihydronaphthalen-1-amine derivatives in excellent yields with good to high enantioselectivities.