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Vidal’s research group in the cover of Chemistry - A European Journal

The front cover of Issue 50 of Chemistry – A European Journal shows an eruption of organic molecules. A similar ‘eruption’ of enantiomerically enriched amine, alcohol and α-amino acid derivatives that are valuable building blocks, intermediates or direct precursors for the synthesis of important pharmaceutical chiral compounds is described in the paper by Anton Vidal and co-workers.

One of the research lines in Anton Vidal’s research group is the synthesis of enantiomerically pure P-OP ligands (phosphine-phosphinites and phosphine-phosphites) and their application in asymmetric catalysis. (Chem. Rev. 2011, 111, 2119).In this Chem. Eur. J. paper, they use chiral cationic rhodium complexes of some of these P-OP ligands for the enantioselective hydrogenation reaction of a number of strategically devised alkenes, with high efficiency and high enantioselectivity.
In this way, they synthesise a range of enantiomerically enriched organic compounds that constitute advanced intermediates or direct precursors for the synthesis of relevant chiral pharmaceutical drugs.

Enantioselective Access to Chiral Drugs by using Asymmetric Hydrogenation Catalyzed by Rh(POP) Complexes
Dr. Pablo Etayo, José Luis Núñez-Rico, Dr. Héctor Fernández-Pérez, Prof. Anton Vidal-Ferran
Chem. Eur. J., 2011, 17, 13978-13982