Design of novel chiral N,N,O-tridentate phenanthroline ligands and their application to enantioselective addition of organozinc reagents to aldehydes.

ABSTRACT

The novel N,N,O-tridentate phenanthroline ligand (BinThro) bearing an axially chiral binaphthyl backbone prepared from BINOL was found to be an effective chiral catalyst for enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to aromatic aldehydes with high enantioselectivity (up to 95% ee).