Readily Available Phosphine−Phosphoramidite Ligands for Highly Efficient Rh-Catalyzed Enantioselective Hydrogenations

A new family of air- and moisture-stable phosphine−phosphoramidite ligands (PEAPhos) has been prepared from commercially available and inexpensive (S)-α-phenylethylamine through a two- or three-step transformation and successfully applied in the rhodium-catalyzed enantioselective hydrogenations of a variety of substrates, in which up to 99.9% ee was obtained for all of these kinds of substrates.