Effects of rare earth metals on the catalytic asymmetric nitroaldol reaction

Abstract

Abstract Various asymmetric rare earth complexes have been prepared from rare earth metal trichlorides such as YCl 3 , LaCl 3 , PrCl 3 , NdCl 3 , SmCl 3 , EuCl 3 , GdCl 3 , TbCl 3 and YbCl 3 , dilithium ( R ) binaphthoxide, NaOH and H 2 O. The optical purities of nitroaldols obtained using these rare earth complexes as an asymmetric catalyst have been highly dependent on the size of rare earth metals. The application to a catalytic asymmetric synthesis of ( S )-metoprolol, a β 1 -selective β-blocker, has been also achieved.