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Chiral phosphorus ligands play a crucial role in asymmetric catalysis for the efficient synthesis of useful optically active compounds. They are largely categorized into two classes: backbone chirality ligands and P-stereogenic phosphorus ligands. Most of the reported ligands belong to the former class. Privileged ones such as BINAP and DuPhos are frequently employed in a wide range of catalytic asymmetric transformations. In contrast, the latter class of P-stereogenic phosphorus ligands has remained a small family for many years mainly because of their synthetic difficulty. The late 1990s saw the emergence of novel P-stereogenic phosphorus ligands with their superior enantioinduction ability in Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation reactions. Since then, numerous P-stereogenic phosphorus ligands have been synthesized and used in catalytic asymmetric reactions. This Review summarizes P-stereogenic phosphorus ligands reported thus far, including their stereochemical and electronic properties that afford high to excellent enantioselectivities. Examples of reactions that use this class of ligands are described together with their applications in the construction of key intermediates for the synthesis of optically active natural products and therapeutic agents. The literature covered dates back to 1968 up until December 2023, centering on studies published in the late 1990s and later years.

A new series of C 1 -symmetric P-chirogenic bisphosphine ligands of the type ( R )-5,8- Si -Quinox- t Bu 3 (Silyl = SiMe 3 , SiEt 3 , SiMe 2 Ph) have been developed. The bulky silyl modulators attached to the ligand backbone fix the phosphine substituents to form rigid chiral environments that can be used for substrate recognition. The ligand showed high performances for a copper(I)-catalyzed asymmetric borylative cyclopropanation of bulky silyl-substituted allylic electrophiles to afford higher disfavored 1,2- cis -silyl-boryl-cyclopropanes than the other possible isomers, trans -cyclopropane and allylboronate (up to 97% yield; 98% ee; cis / trans = >99:1; cyclopropane/allylboronate = >99:1). Detailed computational studies suggested that the highly rigid phosphine conformation, which is virtually undisturbed by the steric interactions with the bulky silyl-substituted allyl electrophiles, is key to the high stereo- and product-selectivities. Furthermore, the detailed computational analysis provided insight into the mechanism of the stereoretention or -inversion of the chiral alkylcopper(I) intermediate in the intramolecular cyclization.

A new C 2 -symmetrical P -chirogenic bisphosphine ligand with silyl substituents on the ligand backbone, ( R , R )-5,8-TMS-QuinoxP*, has been developed. This ligand showed higher reactivity and enantioselectivity for the direct enantioconvergent borylation of cyclic allyl electrophiles than its parent ligand, ( R , R )-QuinoxP* (e.g., for a piperidine-type substrate: 95% ee vs 76% ee). The borylative kinetic resolution of linear allyl electrophiles was also achieved using ( R , R )-5,8-TMS-QuinoxP* (up to 90% ee, s = 46.4). An investigation into the role of the silyl groups on the ligand backbone using X-ray crystallography and computational studies displayed interlocking structures between the phosphine and silyl moieties of ( R , R )-5,8-TMS-QuinoxP*. The results of DFT calculations revealed that the entropy effect thermodynamically destabilizes the dormant dimer species in the catalytic cycle to improve the reactivity. Furthermore, in the direct enantioconvergent case, detailed calculations indicated a pronounced enantioselective recognition of carbon-carbon double bonds, which is virtually unaffected by the chirality at the allylic position, as a key for the borylation from both enantiomers of racemic allyl electrophiles.

A bulky three-hindered quadrant bisphosphine ligand, di-1-adamantylphosphino( tert -butylmethylphosphino)methane, named BulkyP*, has been synthesized via a convergent short pathway with chromatography-free procedures. The ligand is a crystalline solid and can be readily handled in air. Its rhodium(I) complex exhibits very high enantioselectivities and catalytic activities in the asymmetric hydrogenation of functionalized alkenes.

A Pd-catalyzed asymmetric allylic substitution with 1,3-dithianes as acyl anion equivalents has been developed in high yields and excellent enantioselectivities. The reaction was performed on a gram scale, and the corresponding alkylated products were conveniently converted into several biologically active products. This work provides an alternative strategy utilizing electrophilic carbonyl compounds as nucleophilic species in a Pd-catalyzed allylic substitution.

A range of bromothiophenes reacted with lithium boranato(tert-butyl)methylphosphide in the absence of transition-metal catalysts under mild conditions to provide the same 2,5-disubstituted and 2-monosubstituted products regardless of the substitution patterns of the starting bromothiophenes.

Novel P-stereogenic PCP pincer-Pd complexes were designed and prepared in short steps from optically pure tert-butylmethylphosphine-borane. These optically active Pd-complexes were successfully applied in asymmetric addition of diarylphosphines to nitroalkenes with high yields and good enantioselectivity.

A pincer-Pd complex was utilized in the chemoselective transfer hydrogenation of α,β-unsaturated ketones using n-BuOH as a hydrogen source and solvent. Good to excellent yields were obtained for various substrates even with reducible groups. Based on deuterium-labeling experiments, the reaction mechanism is proposed to occur via a pincer-Pd-hydride intermediate.

The three-hindered quadrant phosphine ligands (R)-1-tert-butylmethylphosphino-2-(di-tert-butylphosphino)benzene ((R)-3H-BenzP*) and (R)-2-tert-butylmethylphosphino-3-(di-tert-butylphosphino)quinoxaline ((R)-3H-QuinoxP*) exhibited good to excellent enantioselectivities in the rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of selected dehydroamino acid derivatives, enamides, and ethenephosphonates., (© 2012 American Chemical Society)

Both enantiomers of 2,3-bis(tert-butylmethylphosphino)quinoxaline (QuinoxP*), 1,2-bis(tert-butylmethylphosphino)benzene (BenzP*), and 1,2-bis(tert-butylmethylphosphino)-4,5-(methylenedioxy)benzene (DioxyBenzP*) were prepared in short steps from enantiopure (S)- and (R)-tert-butylmethylphosphine-boranes as the key intermediates. All of these ligands were crystalline solids and were not readily oxidized on exposure to air. Their rhodium complexes exhibited excellent enantioselectivities and high catalytic activities in the asymmetric hydrogenation of functionalized alkenes, such as dehydroamino acid derivatives and enamides. The practical utility of these catalysts was demonstrated by the efficient preparation of several chiral pharmaceutical ingredients having an amino acid or a secondary amine component. A rhodium complex of the structurally simple ligand BenzP* was used for the mechanistic study of asymmetric hydrogenation. Low-temperature NMR studies together with DFT calculations using methyl α-acetamidocinnamate as the standard model substrate revealed new aspects of the reaction pathways and the enantioselection mechanism., (© 2011 American Chemical Society)

An electron-rich P-stereogenic bisphosphine ligand named "BenzP*" was conveniently prepared from o-dibromobenzene and enantiopure tert-butylmethylphosphine-borane. Its rhodium complex exhibited excellent enantioselectivities of up to 99.9% and high catalytic activity of up to 10,000 h(-1) TOF in asymmetric hydrogenations of various functionalized alkenes.

The preparation of new chiral bicyclic imidazoles 5 and their transformation into imidazolium salts 6 and 7 are reported. The utility of the salts as precursors for chiral N-heterocyclic carbenes was demonstrated by the synthesis of C-N-C pincer Ni-complex 13h, the structure of which was characterized by single-crystal X-ray analysis.

Optically active dinuclear palladium complexes containing a Pd-Pd bond were prepared by using (R,R)-bis(tert-butylmethylphosphino)methane ((R,R)-t-Bu-MiniPHOS). The dinuclear palladium complexes coupled with silver triflate exhibited good to excellent enantioselectivities up to 99% in palladium-catalyzed alkylative ring-opening reactions of azabenzonorbornadienes.

New synthetic routes to substituted 3-hydroxypyridines 6 are presented. Ring-closing olefin metathesis (RCM)/elimination and RCM/oxidation/deprotection of nitrogen-containing dienes 4 are the key processes of the routes. An application of RCM/oxidation/deprotection to the synthesis of 3-aminopyridine 13f is also described.

The synthesis of substituted styrenes was achieved by ring-closing enyne metathesis (RCEM)/elimination of enyne substrates 12. The synthetic approach was also effective for a different type of enyne substrate 14, yielding corresponding styrene 15.

The rhodium complex of (R)-(tert-butylmethylphosphino)(di-tert-butylphosphino)methane used in Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of representative substrates 3-14 demonstrated high catalytic activity coupled with wide scope and nearly perfect enantioselectivity. Mechanistic studies (NMR and DFT computations) were carried out in order to investigate the mechanism of the enantioselection in the asymmetric hydrogenation of (Z)-alpha-acetamidocinnamate (3). Although catalyst-substrate complexes 15a,b with the double bond coordinated near the non-"chiral" phosphorus atom were formed as kinetic products upon the addition of 3 to solvate complex 2 at -100 degrees C, they rapidly rearranged to more stable isomers 15c,d with the double bond coordinated near the "chiral" phosphorus atom. The thermodynamic and kinetic parameters of the interconversion between 15c and 15d were determined by NMR; mainly, the interconversion occurred intramolecularly via nonchelating catalyst-substrate complexes 16. The equilibrium between 15d and 16d was directly observed from NMR line shape changes at temperatures ranging from -100 to -40 degrees C, whereas no such equilibrium was observed for 15c. This result was accounted for computationally by determining the corresponding transition states for the methanol insertion into 15c,d. Three sets of experiments of the low-temperature hydrogenation of different catalyst-substrate complexes gave the same order and sense of enantioselectivity (97% ee (R)) even in the case when 15c, having Re-coordinated double bond, was hydrogenated under the conditions precluding its isomerization to 15d. It was concluded that the hydrogenation of 15c,d does not occur directly, but is preceded by the dissociation of the double bond to result in the more reactive species 16. This indicates that enantioselection must occur at a later step of the catalytic cycle. DFT computations of association and migratory insertion steps suggest that enantioselection takes place during the association step when chelating dihydride 19d.MeOH is formed from nonchelating dihydride 18d.

The potential of the t-Bu-QuinoxP* ligand (1) as a chiral ligand in asymmetric synthesis was examined. The ligand exhibited good to excellent asymmetric induction in Pd-catalyzed asymmetric allylic substitution of 1,3-diphenyl-2-propenyl acetate (up to 98.7% ee) and in Ru-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of ketones (up to 99.9% ee).

[Structure: see text] Bis(phosphine)boronium salts 3a-c were designed and prepared as key building blocks for the synthesis of highly congested diphosphinobenzenes. The preparation of sterically hindered ortho-phenylene-bridged diphosphines 1a-c was achieved by the reaction of the bis(phosphine)boronium salts 3a-c with difluorobenzenechromium complex 2 and subsequent removal of the BH2 group. The steric nature of diphosphine 1a was revealed in single-crystal X-ray analysis of its Rh complex.

[reaction: see text] An iridium(I) complex of (S,S)-1,2-bis(tert-butylmethylphosphino)ethane with tetrakis(3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)borate as the counterion catalyzes the hydrogenation of acyclic aromatic N-aryl imines under 1 atm of hydrogen pressure at room temperature to give the corresponding optically active secondary amines with up to 99% ee.

[reaction: see text] (S)-2-(tert-Butylmethylphosphino)phenol and its methyl ether were synthesized from tert-butyldichlorophosphine via optically active phosphine-boranes as the intermediates. The former compound was used as a P/O hybrid ligand in the Cu-catalyzed asymmetric conjugate addition of diethylzinc to acyclic enones to achieve high enantioselectivity of up to 96%.

A new P-chiral phosphine ligand, (R,R)-2,3-bis(tert-butylmethylphosphino)quinoxaline, has been prepared by the reaction of enantiomerically pure tert-butylmethylphosphine-borane with 2,3-dichloroquinoxaline. This ligand, in contrast to most of the previously reported P-chiral ligands, is an air-stable solid and exhibits excellent enantioselectivities in both Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenations and Rh- or Pd-catalyzed carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions.

Phenol derivatives, which are one of the most important classes of aromatic compounds in organic chemistry, were synthesized by ruthenium-catalyzed ring-closing olefin metathesis (RCM) of 1,4,7-trien-3-ones with versatile substitution patterns. The RCM reaction for producing phenol derivatives was also successful with 1,5,7-trien-3-one as another precursor. Most of the phenols prepared here could not be obtained easily by conventional methods.

This account brings together the recent experimental and computational data on the mechanism of Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of activated double bonds. Two alternative reaction pathways (unsaturated and dihydride) are compared. It is suggested that the differences in these mechanisms are not primarily important for stereoselection, since they join in a single pathway before stereoselection occurs. This approach was used to rationalize the present discrepancies in the prediction of the sense of enantioselection for the P-stereogenic ligands and the ligands with backbone chirality.

The constitution of Grignard reagent, RMgCl (R = Me, tBu, Ph or benzyl), was investigated in the solid state by means of X-ray crystallography and in THF by coldspray ionization mass spectrometry (CSI-MS). Three types of crystal structures, (a) [Mg2(mu-Cl3)(THF)6](+)*[RMgCl2(THF)](-), (b) R2Mg4Cl6(THF)6, and (c) [2Mg2(mu-Cl3)(THF)6](+)*[R4Mg2Cl2]2-, were identified, and MeMg2(mu-Cl3)(THF)4-6 were detected as major species of MeMgCl in solution.

The asymmetric hydrogenation of aryl- and alkyl-substituted enamides catalyzed by Rh-BisP complex affords optically active amides with very high ee values. The Rh-MiniPHOS catalyst gives somewhat less satisfactory results. Hydrogenation of the aryl-substituted enamides with (S,S)-BisP-Rh catalyst gives R-amides, whereas the t-Bu- and 1-adamantyl-substituted enamides give S-products with 99% ee. Reaction of [Rh(BisP)(CD(3)OD)(2)]BF(4) (11) with CH(2)=C(C(6)H(5))NHCOCH(3) (5) gives two diastereomers of the catalyst-substrate complex (12a,b), which interconvert reversibly by both intra- and intermolecular pathways as shown by EXSY data. Only one isomer in equilibrium with solvate complex 11 was detected for each of the catalyst-substrate complexes 17 and 18 obtained from CH(2)=C(t-Bu)NHCOCH(3) (6) or CH(2)=C(1-adamantyl)NHCOCH(3) (7). Hydrogenation of these equilibrium mixtures at -100 degrees C gave monohydride intermediates 19 and 20, respectively. In these monohydrides the Rh atom is bound to the beta-carbon. A new effect of the significant decrease of ee was found for the asymmetric hydrogenation of CH(2)=C(C(6)H(4)OCH(3)-o)NHCOCH(3) (21), when H(2) was substituted for HD or D(2).

Excellent enantioselectivities up to 99.7% were achieved in the hydrogenation of (E)-beta-(acylamino)acrylates by the use of Rh(I)-complexes of electron-rich diphosphines, t-Bu-BisP and t-Bu-MiniPHOS. Low-temperature NMR experiments testify that monohydrides with beta-carbon atom of the substrate bound to rhodium are involved in the catalytic cycle.

[figure: see text] New rhodium catalysts with unsymmetric P-chirogenic bis(phosphino)ethanes, BisP*-Rh, exhibited very high enantioselectivity (98-99%) in the hydrogenation of alpha-dehydroamino acid derivatives. Such high enantioselectivity should result from the asymmetric environment around the Rh atom, as was shown in the molecular structure of the catalyst analyzed by X-rays. The asymmetry can be controlled by the combination of the alkyl groups on the two phosphorus atoms.

[figure: see text] Various phosphine oxides are efficiently reduced by the use of a methylation reagent and lithium aluminum hydride. Optically active P-chirogenic phosphine oxides are also reduced with inversion of configuration at phosphorus atom by treatment with methyl triflate, followed by reaction with LiAlH4.

A novel metallohelical motif is well designed and synthesized by mimicking the alpha-helical fold structure of protein. The 1D helical structures of [Cd(CH2(COO)2)(SC(NH2)2)2]n (I) and [Zn(CH2(COO)2) (SC(NH2)2)2]n (II) are primarily induced and stabilized by the multiple long-range intrahelix hydrogen bonds. Malonate dianion acts as a bidentate ligand coordinated with metal ions to form the backbone of the helix, and thiourea molecules that bend into the helical turn are involved in the intrahelix hydrogen-bond system. The metal ion occupations in the helix of I and II can be freely substituted by simply controlling the initial ratio of those two metal ions. Single crystals of three mixed metal ion complexes of [Cd0.77Zn0.23(CH2(COO)2)(SC(NH2)2)2]n (III), [Cd0.50Zn0.50(CH2(COO)2)(SC(NH2)2)2]n (IV), and [Cd0.21Zn0.79(CH2(COO)2)(SC(NH2)2)2]n (V) were synthesized from systems with an initial Cd/Zn mole ratio of 1:1 for III, 1:2 for IV, and 1:8 for V. They are isomorphous as confirmed by X-ray characterization. When the metal ion is substituted, the multiple intrahelix hydrogen interaction motifs of the coordination polymer structure are self-adjusted to sustain their 1D helical motifs.