Application of chiral bidentate NMR solvents for assignment of the absolute configuration of alcohols: scope and limitation

The 13C NMR behaviors of several cyclic and biaryl secondary alcohols as well as acyclic tertiary alcohols have been studied in the chiral bidentate NMR solvent BMBA-p-Me (1). An empirical rule has been advanced to correlate the absolute configuration of each type of alcohols with the 13C chemical shift behaviors in (R,R)- and (S,S)-BMBA-p-Me.