Highly enantioselective cyanosilylation of aldehydes catalyzed by novel beta-amino alcohol-titanium complexes.

The beta-amino alcohol 1b-Ti(Oi-Pr)(4) complex has been shown to catalyze the enantioselective cyanosilylation of aldehydes efficiently. In the presence of 5 mol % of 1b-Ti(Oi-Pr)(4) complex catalyst, the aromatic, conjugated, heteroaromatic, and aliphatic aldehydes were converted to their corresponding trimethylsilyl ethers of cyanohydrins in 90-99% yields with up to 94% ee under mild conditions.