Diastereoselective Preparation of Chiral-at-Metal Organometallic Complexes Using a Chelating Sulfoxide−Carboxylate Ligand

Using the bidentate ligand (R)-2-[(R)-phenylsulfinyl]propionic acid (1), a range of new chiral-at-metal complexes of general formula [(L)M(S,O)Cl] have been prepared where L = Cp*, M = Rh^III (2), Ir^III (3), L = p-cymene, M = Ru^II (4), Os^II (5), and L = C₆(CH₃)₆, M = Ru^II (6) and S,O is the monoanion obtained from the K(t-BuO) deprotonation of 1. Molecular structures for 2−6 are reported, confirming that these complexes are formed with excellent stereospecificity at the metal center in moderate (59%, 6) to excellent (92%, 3) isolated single-isomer yields.