Fig. 3: Synthesis of enantiopure (SZn)-[ZnL(NCtBu)] by highly diastereoselective asymmetric induction using a coordinating chiral auxiliary followed by replacement with an achiral tBuCN molecule.

a Reaction scheme. RT room temperature, HMDSO hexamethyldisiloxane, equiv. equivalents, ee enantiomer excess. b X-ray single-crystal structures of three zinc complexes in a ball-and-stick model. Hydrogen atoms on carbon atoms and solvent molecules are omitted for clarity. For (SZn)-[ZnL((S)-dpp)], one of the crystallographically independent but structurally similar molecules is shown. Colour code: Zn, blue grey; C, grey; N, blue; O, red; F, yellow green; S, yellow. Dashed magenta lines denote plausible hydrogen bonds.