New chiral Schiff base as a tridentate ligand for catalytic enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to aldehydes.

We have developed new chiral Schiff base catalysts for the enantioselective addition of diethylzinc reagents to aldehydes. The reaction of benzaldehyde with diethylzinc in the presence of 1 mol % of the chiral Schiff base catalyst proceeded to afford 1-phenyl-1-propanol in 96% enantiomeric excess (ee).