Copper-catalyzed enantioselective synthesis of tertiary and all-carbon quaternary stereogenic centers through conjugate addition of dialkylzinc reagents to nitroalkenes

General and efficient methods for catalytic asymmetric conjugate addition of alkylzincs to a variety of acyclic disubstituted and trisubstituted nitroalkenes are presented in this thesis.;Chapter one. A brief overview of asymmetric conjugate addition of various nucleophiles to acyclic nitroalkenes and transformation of the corresponding nitro groups into a variety of functionalities is presented.;Chapter two. Development of a general and efficient copper catalyst for the enantioselective conjugate addition of dialkylzincs to acyclic aromatic and aliphatic nitroalkenes is disclosed.;Chapter three. The first reported catalytic method for enantioselective synthesis of quaternary carbon centers through conjugate addition of dialkylzincs is outlined.