A highly distorted tetrahedron formed by the four nitrogen atoms around zinc in the crystalline zinc-sulfonamide complex 1 may explain its catalytic activity in asymmetric cyclopropanations. The agent is formed by deprotonation of (R,R)-N,N'-cyclohexane-1,2-diyl)bis(n-butanesulfonamide) with diethylzinc and addition of 2,2'-bipyridyl.
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Denmark et al. (1998) studied this question.