Precise structure activity relationships in asymmetric catalysis using carbohydrate scaffolds to allow ready fine tuning: dialkylzinc-aldehyde additions.

The ready construction of 24 stereochemically and functionally diverse carbohydrate ligand structures from a core D-glucosamine scaffold has allowed the evaluation of broad ranging structure activity relationships in ligand accelerated zincate additions to aldehydes, with variations in deltadeltaG+/+(R-S) of up to 5650 J mol(-1) that create opposing senses of asymmetric induction and that are consistent with models based on several ligand X-ray structures and molecular mechanics analysis. Factorial analysis of enantioselectivity using key dihedral angles and steric volume on N-2 also highlight the potential for the use of factorial design in ligand construction.