Libraries of Bidentate Phosphorus Ligands; Synthesis Strategies and Application in Catalysis

Combinatorial chemistry in combination with high‐throughput screening technologies is an important way of finding new successful catalyst systems. The design of ligand libraries of bidentate phosphorus ligands and the application of their transition‐metal complexes in homogeneous (asymmetric) catalysis reactions will be described in this review. Till now three different approaches were developed to arrive at such libraries of bidentate phosphorus ligands: 1) modular synthesis of bidentate ligands 2) the solid support synthesis of bidentate ligands and 3) the self‐assembly of ligand building blocks into bidentate ligands. The scope and limitations of these strategies will be discussed on the basis of a limited number of articles that dealt with the synthesis of at least 15 bidentate phosphorus ligands. (© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2008)