Readily available phosphine-phosphoramidite ligands for highly efficient Rh-catalyzed enantioselective hydrogenations

A new family of air- and moisture-stable phosphine-phosphoramidite ligands (PEAPhos) has been prepared from commercially available and inexpensive ( S)-alpha-phenylethylamine through a two- or three-step transformation and successfully applied in the rhodium-catalyzed enantioselective hydrogenations of a variety of substrates, in which up to 99.9% ee was obtained for all of these kinds of substrates.