Controlled diastereo- and enantioselection in a catalytic asymmetric aziridination

The ability of VANOL and VAPOL ligands to catalyze the reaction of diarylmethyl imines with diazoesters to give cis-aziridines is applied to develop an unprecedented universal catalytic asymmetric aziridination protocol. The face selectivity of the addition to the imine is found to be independent of the diazo compounds.