Front Cover: Iridium‐Catalyzed Direct Asymmetric Alkylation of Aniline Derivatives using 2‐Norbornene (Asian J. Org. Chem. 6/2018)

Enantioselective transformations through the activation of C−H bond allows the facile synthesis of chiral building blocks. We developed an efficient and highly enantioselective direct alkylation process for acetanilides that use 2‐norbornene with a bis(phosphoramidite)‐cationic Ir catalytic system (up to 99% ee ). This methodology allows the facile preparation of enantiomerically enriched exo ‐2‐(bicyclo[2.2.1]heptan‐2‐yl)aniline, which can be readily transformed into other functionalities. More information can be found in the Communication by Tomohiko Shirai et al. on page 1054 in Issue 6, 2018 (DOI: 10.1002/ajoc.201800185).