Asymmetric Deprotonation

The present reagents 1 and 2 react with n-butyllithium and form chiral lithium amides 3 which are used as a chiral base for the generation of optically active enol derivatives from prochiral ketones. Optically active enols or the corresponding silyl enol ethers 4 constitute useful synthetic intermediates for synthesizing optically active compounds which have been subjected to enantioselecitve alkylation, acylation, carboxylation, etc.¹⁾.