Novel chiral copper complexes of N, P-ferrocenyl ligands with central and planar chirality as efficient catalyst for asymmetric addition of diethylzinc to imines

Abstract

A new type of chiral copper complexes of N, P-ferrocenyl ligands with central and planar chirality as efficient catalyst was applied to the enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to N-diphenylphosphinoylimines. The ( R)- and ( S)-enantiomers of the addition reaction were obtained for this transformation. In the presence of 6 mol % of bidentate ligand 1 and 12 mol % of Cu(OTf) 2, the asymmetric addition process affords N-diphenylphosphinoylamides in up to 97% ee and 95% yields.