Chiral salcyan complexes of aluminium are effective air and water tolerant
enantioselective catalysts for the hydrophosphonylation of carbonyls. Compl
exes of the form [(R,R)-salcyan]AlX (X = OH, OR) result in product enantios
electivity changes (Delta ee) of ca. 100% compared to those returned in the
presence of related complexes [(R,X)-salcyen]AlX even though they both pos
sess a chiral ligand framework with the same absolute stercochemistry. (C)
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