Parallel approach to selective catalysts for palladium-catalyzed desymmetrization of 2,4-cyclopentenediol.

[reaction: see text] Work toward the development of a bis-phosphine ligand system for the palladium-catalyzed desymmetrization of meso-diols is reported. A parallel approach using phosphine-containing amino acids and a "representational search" was taken to find a polymer-supported catalyst system. The selectivities reported are comparable to many other polymer-bound asymmetric catalysts.