Simple d-glucosamine-based phosphine-imine and phosphine-amine ligands in Pd-catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylations

A new family of phosphine-imine and phosphine-amine ligands based on d-glucosamine were synthesized in order to probe previous asymmetric allylic alkylation results with those of disaccharide ligands of the same class. In most cases, good-to-excellent activities and enantioselectivies were observed with these ligands with ee's reaching up to 87% in the Pd-catalyzed allylic alkylation reaction of racemic (E)-1,3-diphenyl-2-propenyl acetate with dimethyl malonate as the nucleophile.