American Chemical Society, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 24(137), p. 7656-7659, 2015
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5b04726
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We report on the active template synthesis of a [2]rotaxane through a Goldberg copper-catalyzed C-N bond forming reaction. A C2-symmetric cyclohexyldiamine macrocycle directs the assembly of the rotaxane, which can subsequently serve as a ligand for enantioselective nickel-catalyzed conjugate addition reactions. Rotaxanes are a previously unexplored ligand architecture for asymmetric catalysis. We find that the rotaxane gives improved enantioselectivity compared to a non-interlocked ligand, at the expense of longer reaction times.