A new strategy, a transient homocoupling dimer strategy, for direct catalytic oxidative cross-enolate coupling reactions is developed. Cross-enolate coupling products bearing a (contiguous) tetrasubstituted carbon center were obtained chemoselectively without the need for stoichiometric amounts of strong bases/metal oxidants, and thus, the present catalysis provides a general method for the synthesis
Syn‐gled out: The syn diastereo‐ and enantioselective addition of azlactones to 3‐vinylindoles was accomplished by using a chiral, binapthol‐derived, Brønstedacid catalyst (see scheme). This method enables facileaccess to tryptophanderivatives with adjacent quaternary and tertiary stereogenic centers, which are potentially useful for the synthesis of peptidomimetics.