Stereospecific Syntheses of Enaminonitriles and beta-Enaminoesters via Domino Ring-Opening Cyclization (DROC) of Activated Cyclopropanes with Pronucleophilic Malononitriles

Two novel synthetic protocols for the syntheses of highly functionalized five-membered carbocyclic enaminonitriles and beta-enaminoesters have been developed via domino ring-opening cyclization (DROC) and DROC/decarboxylative tautomerization of activated cyclopropanes with malononitrile pronucleophiles, respectively. Both of the efficient strategies (yield up to 93%) have been generalized with various donor-acceptor and acceptor cyclopropanes as well as with malononitrile derivatives. The stereospecific variants of the two S(N)2-type DROC strategies have also been developed by employing enantiopure donor-acceptor (DA) cyclopropanes to synthesize the corresponding nonracemic products with excellent stereoselectivities (dr up to >99:1, ee up to >99%).