Chiral Diamine in Small Molecule Biomimetic Asymmetric Catalysis

Enzymatic reaction, as an environmentally friendly approach, has made great progress producing commodity chemicals comparing to the conventional metallo/organo catalysis. However, the reaction compatibility is not satisfactory. The development of biomimetic catalysis balancing both strategies for the green and broad application in synthesis is desirable. Here, we report the design and synthesis of a chiral diamine catalyst fulfilling this requirement. Asymmetric addition reactions using this ligand in water were demonstrated and the corresponding products were produced in excellent yields and enantiomeric ratios. This pluripotent ligand has also shown good reactivity/enantioselectivity on a number of representative reactions in both green and organic solvents. We anticipate that the ligand would allow further development of other catalysts for important yet challenging green stereoselective transformations.