A chiral thioureido acid as an effective additive for enantioselective organocatalytic Michael additions of nitroolefins

A novel and effective organocatalytic system consisting of pyrrolidinyl-thioimidazole and a chiral thioureido acid efficiently catalyzed the asymmetric Michael addition reactions of ketones to nitroolefins to afford the adducts with high diastereoselectivities (up to 99 : 1) and excellent enantioselectivities (up to 99% ee).