“Cofactor”-Controlled Enantioselective Catalysis

We report an achiral bisphosphine rhodium complex equipped with a binding site for the recognition of chiral anion guests. Upon binding small chiral guests—cofactors—the rhodium complex becomes chiral and can thus be used for asymmetric catalysis. Screening of a library of cofactors revealed that the best cofactors lead to hydrogenation catalysts that form the products with high enantioselectivity (ee’s up to 99%). Interestingly, a competition experiment shows that even in a mixture of 12 cofactors high ee is obtained, indicating that the complex based on the best cofactor dominates the catalysis.