Abstract: A compound, e g a diamine ligand, represented by the following general formula (1): (Formula (1)) wherein each * represents an asymmetric carbon atom; X represents a group selected from one of an ester (e.g. a t-butyl ester); a thioester; an amide; a heterocyclic moiety (e.g. a five-membered heterocyclic ring) comprising one or more of O, S, Se, and/or P (e.g. a furan, a tetrahydrofuran, a thiophene, an isoxazole, a bromo-furan, or a thiazole); a moiety (e.g. a five-membered heterocyclic ring) comprising a nitrogen atom, wherein the nitrogen atom is protected with a protecting group containing an electron-withdrawing group, preferably the protecting group is selected from one of a carbamate protecting group, an amide protecting group, an aryl sulphonamide protecting group, or an alkyl sulphonamide protecting group; and optionally X may additionally comprise a solid support, e.g.

Abstract: The invention provides the use of a metal complex, which is a complex of one or more metal atoms or ions with one or more ligands, as a catalyst in an organic transformation selected from hydrogenation of carbon-heteroatom double bonds, hydroformylation, dialkylzinc additions to aldehydes, hydrocarboxylation, allylic substitution, oxidation, epoxidation, dihydroxylation, Diels-Alder cycloadditions, dipolar cycloadditions and rearrangement reactions, wherein one or more of the ligands is a ligand of formula (1), wherein the bridge group is an organic functional group, and the R group is a substituted phenyl group, wherein the R group has only one substituent at the ortho position, and wherein a carbon atom of the R group bonds the R group to the P atom.