Chiral Organic Ion Pair Catalysts Assembled Through a Hydrogen-Bonding Network

Research to develop structurally discrete, chiral supramolecular catalysts for asymmetric organic transformations has met with limited success. Here, we report that a chiral tetraaminophosphonium cation, two phenols, and a phenoxide anion appear to self-assemble into a catalytically active supramolecular architecture through intermolecular hydrogen bonding. The structure of the resulting molecular assembly was determined in the solid state by means of x-ray diffraction analysis. Furthermore, in solution the complex promotes a highly stereoselective conjugate addition of acyl anion equivalents to alpha,beta-unsaturated ester surrogates with a broad substrate scope. All structural components of the catalyst cooperatively participate in the stereocontrolling event.