text: Enamines act as nucleophiles that require less acid/base activation for reactivity than their enolate counterparts. They have also been shown to offer a greater selectivity with less side reactions. There is a gradient of reactivity among different enamine types, with a greater reactivity offered by ketone enamines than their aldehyde counterparts. Cyclic ketone enamines follow a reactivity trend where the five membered ring is the most reactive due to its maximally planar conformation at the nitrogen, following the trend  5>8>6>7 (the seven membered ring being the least reactive). This trend has been attributed to the amount of p-character on the nitrogen lone pair orbital - the higher p character corresponding to a greater nucleophilicity because the p-orbital would allow for donation into the alkene π- orbital. Analogously, if the N lone pair participates in stereoelectronic interactions on the amine moiety, the lone pair will pop out of the plane (will pyramidalize) and compromise donation into the adjacent π C-C bond.
  There are many ways to modulate enamine reactivity in addition to altering the steric/electronics at the nitrogen center including changing temperature, solvent, amounts of other reagents, and type of electrophile. Tuning these parameters allows for the preferential formation of E/Z enamines and also affects the formation of the more/less substituted enamine from the ketone starting material.