Within organocatalysis, bifunctional Cinchona Thiourea catalysts have become one of the most important classes of highly efficient catalysts for a wide range of applications. For example it is used in Additions, Aldol reactions, Atropisomer Synthesis, Cyclization, Desymmetrization,  Friedel-Crafts reaction, Henry reaction, Lactonization,  Mannich reaction, Michael Addition, Spirocyclization, Strecker reaction etc..

Bifunctionality of these Cinchona Thiourea catalysts mean the capability to activate the nucleophile and electrophile reactants simultaneously. The Cinchona framework is one of the privileged chiral skeletons in asymmetric organocatalysis. The tertiary amino group in the quinuclidine ring gives basic character to the molecule, hence this can activate/fix nucleophiles or electrophiles, and is responsible for chiral induction. Connecting the cinchona skeleton to a double hydrogen-bond donor moiety like the thiourea, which can fix the corresponding substrate by forming a strong double hydrogen bond, extends their applicability.

Cinchona Thiourea catalysts are robust and tunable bifunctional organocatalysts and therefore synthetically useful for a wide range of transformations.

In our free of charge Chiral Catalyst Search Data Base you can find hundreds of applications for Cinchona Thiourea catalysts with high yields and excellent enantioselectivities.

Example from literature

Organocatalytic Enantioselective Functionalization of Hydroxyquinolines through an Aza-Friedel-Crafts Alkylation with Isatin-derived Ketimines. (Vila et al.; Adv. Synth. Catal. 2018, 360(5), 859-864.)