A series of chiral vana
dyl(V) methoxi
des bearing 3-
t-butyl-5-substitute
d N-salicylene-
L-valinate an
d L-
t-leucinate as chiral auxiliaries has been prepare
d. In all cases except the 3,5-
di-
t-butyl analogue, theyexist as monomers both in solution an
d in the single crystal state. In the case of the 3,5-
di-
t-butyl analogue,the architectural nature of the vana
dyl(V) complex highly
depen
ds on the base use
d during the complexformation event. A pentanuclear
C4-symmetric complex was forme
d when potassium salts were employe
dinstea
d of the correspon
ding so
dium salts. A central vana
date(V) unit serves to grip four i
dentical chiralmonomeric vana
dyl(V) units together, by which a potassium ion sits on top of the four flanking unitsthrough carbonyl coor
dinations an
d serves to hol
d the whole cluster by cooperation with the centralvana
date(V) unit. In comparison with the correspon
ding monomeric vana
dyl(V) methoxi
de complex, thecluster complex was utilize
d to facilitate the asymmetric aerobic oxi
dations of various racemic-hy
droxyesters, -ami
des, an
d -thioesters with excellent selectivity factors (
krel 40 to >500).