Sterically encumbered chiral amino alcohols for the titanium catalyzed asymmetric alkylation of benzaldehyde

Sterically encumbered chiral l-amino alcohols with secondary amines and tertiary alcohols catalyze the enantioselective alkylation of benzaldehyde with diethyl zinc. Using 2 mol % of amino alcohol catalyst predominantly gave (R)-1-phenylpropanol with enantiomeric excesses of up to 61%. Using the in situ prepared titanium complex at 2 mol % as catalyst also favored the (R)-enantiomer with enantiomeric excesses of up to 73%. In almost all cases, the addition catalyzed by the titanium complex exhibited higher enantioselectivity than that of the amino alcohol ligand alone.

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