Phosphane ligands with two binding sites of differing hardness for enantioselective Grignard cross coupling

A series of new, chiral phosphanes is presented, individual members of which were designed to serve as ligands in transition-metal mediated asymmetric Grignard cross coupling reactions. These ligands are characterized by a side chain containing one or two oxygen atoms with the capacity to act as binding sites for the incoming Grignard reagent. A number of structural parameters for the compounds was varied to learn about the reaction mechanism. Most of the ligands were tested in two cross coupling reactions, the formation of 3-phenylbut-1-ene and of 2,2′-dimethyl-1,1′-binaphthyl, respectively. Although both systems gave modest enantiomeric excesses it was not possible to make a comparison of their respective abilities.