A Chemoenzymatic Cascade Combining a Hydration Catalyst with an Amine Dehydrogenase: Synthesis of Chiral Amines.

An encapsulated gold carbene complex was combined with a free amine dehydrogenase (GkAmDH) as a co-catalyst, enabling a cascade synthetic route to directly access chiral amines from propargylethers. This process, combining an initial gold carbene catalyzed hydration of propargylethers to ketones followed by a subsequent reductive amination, produces a wide range of chiral amines in high yields and excellent enantioselectivities.An encapsulated gold carbene complex was combined with a free amine dehydrogenase (GkAmDH) as a co-catalyst, enabling a cascade synthetic route to directly access chiral amines from propargylethers. This process, combining an initial gold carbene catalyzed hydration of propargylethers to ketones followed by a subsequent reductive amination, produces a wide range of chiral amines in high yields and excellent enantioselectivities.