Development of Novel Chiral Phosphines for Asymmetric Transition Metal Catalysis

Phosphines are one of the most important ligand types for tuning the reactivity of transition metals that are used in catalysis. Chiral phosphines are used extensively for inducing control of enantioselectivity in a wide range of important transition metal-catalysed transformations. This project will investigate the synthesis and evaluation of chiral phosphines that possess additional functionality with which to engage in attractive non-covalent interactions with the substrate. We are particularly interesting in investigating such ligands that are related to Buchwald-type ligands and have had recent success for atroposelective cross-coupling to form biphenols (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2022, 144, 15026). This project will expand on this work to target modified ligand scaffolds to apply more broadly to other challenging enantioselective transformations, both with palladium catalysts as well as other metals.