We synthesized a modular sugar-based phosphite ligand library for the Ni-catalyzed trialkylaluminumad
dition to aldehydes. This library has been designed to rapidly screen the ligands to uncover their importantstructure features and determine the scope of the phosphite ligands in this catalytic reaction. After systematicvariation of the sugar backbone, the substituents at the phosphite moieties, and the flexibility of theligand backbone, the monophosphite ligand 1,2:5,6-
di-
O-isopropylidene-3-
O-((3,3';5,5'-tetra-
tert-butyl-1,1'-biphenyl-2,2'-
diyl)phosphite)-
-
D-glucofuranose
1c was found to be optimal, yiel
ding high activitiesand enantioselectivities (ee's up to 94%) for several aryl aldehydes.