Highly Enantioselective Copper-Catalyzed Conjugate Addition of Diethylzinc to Enones Using Chiral Spiro Phosphoramidites as Ligands.

Novel monodentate chiral spiro phosphoramidite ligands have been readily synthesized in good yields from enantiomerically pure 1,1'-spirobiindane-7,7'-diol. The new ligands were highly efficient in the copper-catalyzed conjugate addition of Et[sub 2]Zn to enones with up to 98% enantiomeric excess. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]