Development of chiral anionic bis(phosphino)borate ligands for catalytic asymmetric synthesis

Cationic, coordinatively unsaturated late metal centres occupy a critical role in the development of asymmetric catalysis. Our group has recently prepared a family of formally zwiterionic group 9 and 10 complexes supported by anionic bis(phosphino)borate ligands to study neutral species that afford chemistry similar to more conventional cationic systems. We now hope to extend this chemistry to asymmetric catalysis using chiral bis(phosphino)borate ligands (of general structure 1). The synthetic challenges to be met and our recent progress on this front will be discussed.