d-Penicillamine and l-cysteine derived thiazolidine catalysts: an efficient approach to both enantiomers of secondary alcohols

d-Penicillamine derived thiazolidine ligands were prepared in a two-step synthetic sequence and used in the enantioselective alkylation of a variety of aromatic aldehydes with diethylzinc at room temperature. Excellent ee, up to >99%, and nearly complete conversions were observed. Structurally analogous l-cysteine derived thiazolidine ligands were also synthesized and tested for comparative purposes, resulting in very good, albeit slightly lower selectivities, up to 89%. The combined use of these two types of thiazolidines constitutes a very interesting strategy for synthesizing both (S) and (R) enantiomers of chiral secondary alcohols, thus leading the way to a myriad of useful optically active products with opposite absolute configurations.