Novel Easily Recyclable Bifunctional Phosphonic Acid Carrying Tripeptides for the Stereoselective Michael Addition of Aldehydes with Nitroalkenes

A novel bifunctional organocatalyst library combining both aminocatalysis and phosphonic acid activation was used for the first time as an efficient tool for the stereoselective Michael addition of aldehydes with several aromatic nitroalkenes with good selectivities up to 95:5 dr and 93:7 er. Due to their high water solubility, the catalysts were easily recyclable and could be reused over several cycles without any significant loss of selectivity.