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

The combination of biocatalysis and transition-metal catalysis can complement synthetic gaps only in a chemical or biological process. However, the intrinsic mutual deactivation between enzymatic and chemical species is a significant challenge in a single operation. To address the above issue, we developed an encapsulated Au/carbene combined with a free amine dehydrogenase as a co-catalyst system that enables an efficient hydration/amination enantioselective cascade process to be accomplished. The mechanistic investigation discloses dual catalysis comprised of alkyne hydration, followed by a reductive amination process.