N,
N-Dimethylamino acids serve as (N,O)-chelating monoanionic ligands to the prochiralfragment Cp*IrCl. A series of four such complexes and one Rhanalog all were formed withdiastereoselectivity of
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50:
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1. The structure of the valinecomplex
5d(C
17H
29ClIrNO
2)wasanalyzed at 298 K, from which a cis-arrangement of Cp* and valine sidechain (
i-Pr) wasrevealed. Solution NMR studies of
5d, aided by anunusual zero coupling between the twomethine protons of the amino acid, showed that the structures insolution and the solidwere very similar. The preference for the cis-oriented Cp* andamino acid side chain in
5is attributed to a maximum number of gauche interactions in themetallacycle and itssubstituents, especially pronounced for N,N-disubstituted amino acids.