| Abstract: | The enantioselective reduction of prochiral ketones with borane in the presence of a chiral ligand leading to enantiomerically pure secondary alcohols has received considerable attention in recent years. [1] Enantiomerically pure secondary alcohols are important intermediates for the synthesis of various other organic compounds such as halides, esters, ethers, ketones and amines. To the best of our knowledge, the use of pyridine prolinol derivatives in the reduction of ketones has not been reported so far. Thus, it should be of interest to investigate the catalytic a bility of such ligands. We have an ongoing project in the synthesis and application of chiral pyridine derivatives in chiral molecular recognition[2] and we want to evaluate the effect resulting from the introduction of a pyridinyl moiety onto the catalysts. We expect that the cooperation of pyridine unit and chiral prolinol unit in new ligands may result in unique properties for catalytic reaction. |
