ORIENTAL JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY Enantioselective Diels-Alder Reactions of Carboxylic Ester Dienophiles Catalysed by Titanium-Based Chiral Lewis Acid

ABSTRACT A new titanium-based chiral Lewis acid 1 has been developed using (1R,2R)-1,2-bis-(2-methoxyphenyl)-ethane-1,2-diol as a chiral vicinal diol ligand. This chiral catalyst was found to exhibit uniformly high enantioselectivity towards carboxylic ester dienophiles in Diels-Alder reactions. The chiral vicinal ligand (1R,2R)-1,2-bis-(2-methoxyphenyl)-ethane-1,2-diol is inexpensive and is easily accessible