Turning renewable feedstocks into a valuable and efficient chiral phosphate salt catalyst

Solketal, the chiral acetonide of glycerol, has been employed as the starting material in the design of a novel punctually chiral phosphate sodium salt for catalytic applications in organic and asymmetric synthesis. The racemate and the two enantiomers of the substrate are economic and commercially available, straightforwardly prepared in high yields from naturally occurring feedstocks. Therefore, remarkably, both enantiomers of the final catalyst can be synthesized by simple procedures in high yield and in compliance with several principles of green chemistry. To further demonstrate the usefulness of the novel catalyst, its application in a solventless protocol for cyanohydrin synthesis from a series of aldehydes has been presented.