‘Diam-BINAP’; a highly efficient monomer for the synthesis of heterogeneous enantioselective catalysts

The synthesis of a monomeric analogue of BINAP, diam-BINAP, is described. The polyaddition of this monomer with 2,6-diisocyanato toluene gave the corresponding oligomer, poly-NAP, with a polymerization degree of 8. The ruthenium complex of this polymer proved to be a very efficient heterogeneous catalyst for the hydrogenation of β-ketoesters (99% ee, 0.1 mol% of catalyst). Furthermore the catalyst could be easily reused four times by simple filtration without loss of activity or enantioselectivity.