C-H Insertion of Diazoglycines – A Novel Approach to Unnatural Amino Acids

Metal carbenoids are useful intermediates capable of highly enantioselective C-H activations and cyclopropanation reactions among others. However, diazo compounds such as diazo glycines possessing a flanking nitrogen atom, apart from nitro groups, have not been reported. Progress toward the challenging synthesis of diazoglycines will be reported. A number of synthetic approaches particularly with regard to introduction of the diazo function were screened. The results of these experiments will be presented