Diastereoisomerically Selective Enantiomerically Pure Titanium Complexes of Salan Ligands: Synthesis, Structure, and Preliminary Activity Studies

The degree of diastereoselectivity in the wrapping of four new chiral Salan ligands to form chiral-at-metal titanium complexes ranged from mild to perfect as a function of the ligands' N substituents; the enantiomerically pure complexes catalyzed the addition of diethyl zinc to benzaldehyde in 73-76% enantiomeric excess.