Highly enantioselective alkynylation of aldehydes catalyzed by a readily available chiral amino alcohol-based ligand

A new inexpensive chiral amino alcohol-based ligand, (1S,2S)-2-N,N-dimethylamino-1-(p-nitrophenyl)-3-(t-butyldimethylsilyloxy)propane-1-ol, was developed for the asymmetric alkynylation of aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes, to prepare the corresponding propargylic alcohols in high yields with up to 99% ee.