Organolithium reagents, external chiral ligands

The C2 symmetric chiral diether 28" and the naturally occurring chiral diamine, (—)-sparteine (29), have been the most successful external chiral ligands for asymmetric conjugate addition of organolithium reagents. The rest of this review highlights organolithium addition, which is mediated or sometimes catalyzed by 28 or 29. 

Reaction of Organolithium Reagents by Using External Chiral Ligands... 

The first report of an external chiral ligand-mediated enantioselective addition of an organolithium reagent to an imine appeared in 1990 (Tomioka, in this volume) [27]. Tomioka and coworkers found that 1,2-addition of MeLi, n-BuLi and vinyllithium to the 4-methoxyphenylimine of benzaldehyde 15 gave, in the presence of tridentate aminoether 16, the corresponding tertiary amines 17 in excellent yields and good ees (71-77%) (Scheme 6). 

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