Template-induced formation of heterobidentate ligands and their application in the asymmetric hydroformylation of styrene

We report the template-induced formation of chelating heterobidentate ligands by the selective self-assembly of two different monodentate ligands on a rigid bis-zinc(II)-salphen template with two identical binding sites; these templated heterobidentate ligands induce much higher enantioselectivities (up to 72% ee) in the rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric hydroformylation of styrene than any of the corresponding homobidentate ligands or non-templated mixed ligand combinations (up to 13% ee).