Enantioselective addition of dialkylzincs to aldehydes catalyzed by (-)-MITH.

An effective catalytic system that imparts high enantioselectivity has been disclosed for the synthesis of optically active alcohols, which may undergo further chemical transformations. The enantioselective alkylation of aldehydes with dialkylzincs to afford the corresponding optically active alcohols with excellent enantioselectvities has been achieved in the presence of 0.1-0.5 mol % of the camphor-derived chiral ligand (-)-2-exo-morpholinoisobornane-10-thiol (MITH) (1) at room temperature or at 0 °C.