Further Developments and Applications of Oxazoline-Containing Ligands in Asymmetric Catalysis

The chiral oxazoline motif is present in many ligands that have been extensively applied in a series of important metal-catalyzed enantioselective reactions. This Review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the most significant applications of oxazoline-containing ligands reported in the literature starting from 2009 until the end of 2018. The ligands are classified not by the reaction to which their metal complexes have been applied but by the nature of the denticity, chirality, and donor atoms involved. As a result, the continued development of ligand architectural design from mono(oxazolines), to bis(oxazolines), to tris(oxazolines) and tetra(oxazolines) and variations thereof can be more easily monitored by the reader. In addition, the key transition states of selected asymmetric transformations will be given to illustrate the features that give rise to high levels of asymmetric induction. As a further aid to the reader, we summarize the majority of schemes with representative examples that highlight the variation in % yields and % ees for carefully selected substrates. This Review should be of particular interest to the experts in the field but also serve as a useful starting point to new researchers in this area. It is hoped that this Review will stimulate both the development/design of new ligands and their applications in novel metal-catalyzed asymmetric transformations.

Optical Resolution of Dimethyl α-Hydroxy-Arylmethylphosphonates via Diastereomer Complex Formation Using Calcium Hydrogen O,O′-Dibenzoyl-(2R,3R)-Tartrate; X-Ray Analysis of the Complexes and Products

Two dimethyl α-hydroxy-arylmethylphosphonates (aryl = Ph and 2-MeOPh) were subjected to optical resolution via diastereomer complex formation applying the acidic calcium salt of O,O′-dibenzoyl-(2R,3R)-tartaric acid as the resolving agent. The dominating diastereomer complexes, whose structure was determined by single crystal X-ray measurements, were obtained in 96% and 68% diastereomer excess values, respectively. After decomposing the diastereomer formations by extraction, and after recrystallizations, the major enantiomer (S and R, respectively) of the α-hydroxyphosphonates were prepared in enantiomeric excess values of 96% and 68%, respectively. The stereostructure of the two α-hydroxy-arylmethylphosphonates was again established by X-ray measurements. Detailed study on the X-ray data allowed valuable conclusions on the nature of the coordination in the complexes (intermolecular interactions), and on the H-bonding.

An Ni–PyBisulidine complex for the asymmetric hydrophosphonylation of aldehydes

A novel Ni–PyBisulidine complex has been developed for the asymmetric hydrophosphonylation of aldehydes.