Asymmetric Synthesis of Beta-amino Acid Derivatives Incorporating a Broad Range of Substitution Patterns by Enolate Additions to Tert-butanesulfinyl Imines

Addition of Ti(Oi-Pr)(3) ester enolates to tert-butanesulfinyl aldimines and ketimines provided beta-substituted, alpha,beta- and beta,beta-disubstituted, alpha,beta,beta- and alpha,alpha,beta-trisubstituted, and alpha,alpha,beta,beta-tetrasubstituted beta-amino acid derivatives in high yields and with high diastereoselectivites. The N-sulfinyl-beta-amino ester products were further employed as versatile intermediates for both standard solution-phase and solid-phase synthetic transformations, including the synthesis of beta-peptide foldamers.