A novel ferrocenyl diselenide for the catalytic asymmetric aryl transfer to aldehydes

An oxazolinyl ferrocenyl diselenide was synthesised by directed ortho-metalation and used as catalyst precursor in the asymmetric addition of diethyl- and diphenylzinc to various aldehydes, yielding synthetically useful secondary alcohols, of which some are difficult to access using other catalytic methodologies. Enantioselectivities of up to 44% for the former and up to 85% for the latter transformations were obtained.