Currently, organometallic complexes involving ligand oxazolines are typically obtained in two sequential steps, where the free ligand is given firstly from a functionalized nitrile by condensation reaction with an amino alcohol in the presence of a Lewis or Bronsted acid catalyst, followed by a further coordination with metal salts to obtain the corresponding oxazolinyl metal complexes. Usually, the yield of the two-step procedure is relatively low; considering that metal oxazoline complexes often contain Lewis acidic metals, it is possible that the two steps may be telescoped. A series of novel chiral organometallic complexes (1–23) were assembled in a single step from nitriles, chiral D/L amino alcohols, and a stoichiometric amount of metal salts (MCl2·nH2O/M(OAc)2·nH2O), with moderate to high yields (20–95%). All the crystalline compounds were fully characterized by NMR, IR, MS, and X-ray analyses.
Part of the book: Synthesis Methods and Crystallization