CHIRAPHOS, palladium catalyst

Asymmetric hydrocyanation has now been achieved using norbornene and norbornadiene as substrates. The reduction of either [PdCl2(+)-DIOP] or PdCl2 in presence of (+)-DIOP led to a palladium(O) species formulated simply as [Pd(+)-DIOP]. This gave, in reaction (164), an optical yield of 30% for the 2-exo-cyanonorbornane formed. Norbornadiene with the same catalyst gave 2-exo-cyanonorborn-5-ene with an optical purity of 17%. When the ligand CHIRAPHOS (51) was used, the catalytic activity was greatly diminished.608,609 In addition to the review of the early work already mentioned, two more recent reviews of hydrocyanation have appeared.610,611... 

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