Abstract:

Both enantiomers of 1, 1'-Bi-2-naphthol (BINOL) 1 are important chiral ligands and auxiliaries for a number of asymmetric transformations such as aldol condensations, alkylations, Diels-Alder reactions, Michael additions, epoxidations, etc. Optically pure 1 and their derivatives have also been used extensively in chiral recognition, chiral separation and construction of functionalised materials^[1]. As a result the development of efficient and economic methods for the preparation of optically pure 1 has attracted much attention in recent years^[2] and novel methods for the resolution of racemic 1 (Rac-1) continue to be developed.