Rare earth metal oxazoline complexes in asymmetric catalysis

Polydentate oxazolines have been employed as highly effective stereodirecting ligands for asymmetric catalysis with metals from across most of the periodic table. Despite their highly versatile coordination chemistry, the use of these ligands tends to be polarised towards late transition metals; their use with early transition metals and the f-elements is significantly less developed. This current article aims to review the coordination chemistry and catalytic applications of Group 3 and lanthanide complexes supported by ligands possessing oxazoline moieties. Oxazoline-containing ligands were first employed in molecular lanthanide catalysis as early as 1997, yet there is still a significant void in the chemical literature in this respect. The ligands generally employed include bis(oxazolinyl)methane (BOX), 2,6-bis(oxazolinyl)pyridine (pybox), 1,1,1-tris(oxazolinyl)ethane (trisox), and others. The complexes are employed in a wide-range of catalytic applications, especially in Lewis acid catalysis, but also in the stereospecific polymerisation of olefins.