Abstract
Abstract A series of chiral vanadium complexes were prepared with amino acid and salicylaldehyde. These chiral complexes have been utilized in the studies of asymmetric coupling of 2-naphthols, chiral cyanohydrins and chiral aminonitriles syntheses. For the cyanohydrins synthesis, the complex 17 was able to catalyze trimethylsilyl cyanaion of aldehyde in acetone. The best reaction solvent was acetone in this catalytic system rather than dichrolomethane or THF. The chiral cyanohydrins were obtained in high yield with 72-90% ee.