Catalytic combinatorial libraries ligand

To date, the most frequently used ligand for combinatorial approaches to catalyst development have been imine-type ligands. From a synthetic point of view this is logical, since imines are readily accessible from the reaction of aldehydes with primary or secondary amines. Since there are large numbers of aldehydes and amines that are commercially available the synthesis of a variety of imine ligands with different electronic and steric properties is easily achieved. Additionally, catalysts based on imine ligands are useful in a number of different catalytic processes. Libraries of imine ligands have been used in catalysts of the Strecker reaction, the aza-Diels-Alder reaction, diethylzinc addition, epoxidation, carbene insertions, and alkene polymerizations. 

Sharpless et al. coined the word ligand-accelerated catalysis (LAC), which means the construction of an active chiral catalyst from an achiral precatalyst via ligand exchange with a chiral ligand. By contrast, a combinatorial library approach in which an achiral pre-catalyst combined with several chiral ligand components (L, L, —) may selectively assemble in the presence of several chiral activators (A, A, —) into the most catalytically active and enantioselective activated catalyst (ML A" ) (Scheme 8.16). ... 

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