Sugar-monophosphite ligands applied to the asymmetric Ni-catalyzed trialkylaluminum addition to aldehydes

Abstract

A series of readily available sugar-based phosphite ligands were applied to the Ni-catalyzed asymmetric trialkylaluminum additions to aldehydes. The ability of the catalysts to transfer chiral information to the product could be tuned by choosing suitable ligand components (configuration at C-3 of the furanoside backbone; the steric hindrance of the substituent at C-3 and the substituents/configuration of the biaryl phosphite moieties). Good enantioselectivities (ee’s up to 84%) were obtained for several aryl aldehydes using several organoaluminum sources.