Salen ligands immobilization methods

The efficiency of new unsymmetrical chiral salen ligands was examined in the asymmetric trimethylsilylcyanation of benzaldehyde. A very high level of enantioselectivity was attainable over chiral Ti(IV) salen complexes prepared from salicylaldehyde and 3,5-Di-/ert-butylsalicylaldehyde derivative as compared to the conventional salen catalyst. Enantiomeric excess of the corresponding reaction product was generally more than 70% over unsymmetric chiral salen catalysts. The chiral Titanium(IV) salen complexes immobilized on a mesoporous MCM-41 by multi grafting method showed a relatively high enantioselectivity for the addition of trimethylsilyl cyanide to the benzaldehyde. 

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