A number of chiral carboxamide dehydration methods were investigated for the preparation of four representative enantiomerically enriched α-aminonitriles possessing only one stereogenic centre; best results were observed using Burgess' salt (yield up to 87%, er up to 92/8) or the trifluoroacetic anhydride–triethylamine combination (yield up to 98%, er up to 86/14). Two of the aminonitriles thus obtained were subjected to Bruylants reactions with a ...