Developing New Chiral Ferrocenyl Ligands for Asymmetric Catalysis: A Personal Account

Abstract

The wide scope of application of chiral ferrocenyl ligands in asymmetric catalysis is illustrated. This class of compounds has constituted the main scientific interest of the author during the last nine years, first at the Central Research Laboratories of Ciba, and more recently at the ETH. Their easy synthetic accessibility offers, e.g., the opportunity to study electronic and steric effects on enantioselectivity for different transition-metal-catalyzed reactions. These studies have led to the most selective catalysts known for model reactions, such as the hydroboration of styrenes with catecholborane and the allylic amination.