Highly enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to aldehydes catalyzed by novel chiral tert-amino alcohols

Abstract

A series of novel chiral tert-amino alcohols 4a-h derived from enantiomerically pure phenylalanine were synthesized efficiently and used as chiral ligands in the catalytic enantioselective ethylation of aldehydes with diethylzinc (diethylzinc-to-aldehyde addition). The use of 10 mol % of the amino alcohols led to the corresponding sec-alcohols with excellent enantioselectivities (up to 100% ee) and high yields.