Unsymmetric salen ligands bearing a Lewis base: intramolecularly cooperative catalysis for cyanosilylation of aldehydes

A series of unsymmetric salen ligands derived from 1,2-diaminocyclohexane bearing an appended Lewis base on the three-position of one aromatic ring were synthesized by the reaction of various functional salicyaldehydes with the condensation product of 1,2-diaminocyclohexane mono(hydrogen chloride) and 3,5-di-tert-butylsalicylaldehyde. These ligands in conjunction with Ti(O(i)Pr)(4) exhibited excellent activity in catalyzing the cyanosilylation of aldehydes with trimethylsilyl cyanide (TMSCN) at mild conditions. The highest activity was observed in the catalyst system with regard to the salen ligand bearing a diethylamino group, which proved to be active even at a high [aldehyde]/[catalyst] ratio up to 50000. In a low catalyst loading of 0.05 mol%, the quantitative conversion of benzaldehyde to the corresponding cyanosilylation product was found within 10 min. at ambient temperature. An intramolecularly cooperative catalysis was proposed wherein the central metal Ti(IV) is suggested to play a role of Lewis acid to activate aldehydes while the appended Lewis base to activate TMSCN.