Synthesis and asymmetric catalytic activities of chiral organogallium and indium complexes with ephedrine derivatives as ligands. The crystal structure of [(1R, 2S)-(Me2Ga-μ-OCH(C6H5)CH(CH3)-μ-NHCH3)]2

Reactions of trimethylgallium or trimethylindium with (1R, 2S)-(−)-ephedrine derivatives afford compounds [(1R, 2S)-(Me2E-μ-OCH(C6H5)CH(CH3)-μ-NRCH3)]2 [E=Ga, R=H (1), CH3 (2), CH2Ph (3); E=In, R=H (4), CH3 (5), CH2Ph (6)] in high yields. The resulting complexes 1–6 have been characterized by 1H-NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis. Structure of the compound 1 determined by single-crystal X-ray analysis shows a dimeric feature containing a standard parallelogram Ga2O2 core bridging through the oxygen atom of ephedrine group. The catalytic asymmetric isocyanosilylation of meso cyclohexene oxide with trimethylsilyl cyanide has been realized with complexes 1–6 as catalysts.