Novel nitrogen containing chelating ligands from aziridines — Preparation, coordination studies, and catalytic application in the cyclopropanation of styrene

Novel ligands have been synthesized by the reaction of readily available aziridines with appropriate nitrogen based nucleophiles under mild conditions. Complexes of different stoichiometry can be readily obtained upon reaction between these ligands and the corresponding copper salts. The enantiomerically pure form of one of the ligands was obtained and applied in the styrene cyclopropanation reaction, where the copper catalyst revealed unexpectedly high diastereoselectivity in comparison with the known systems.Key words: ligands, aziridines, cyclopropanation, copper catalysts, metal complexes.