Patent ID: 8759541

Claim:
A metal catalyst of the formula I: M[ADC][X] n (I) wherein M is a metal; ADC is a chiral acyclic carbene of the formula II: R 1 , R 2 , R 3 and R 4 are independently selected from C 1-10 alkyl, C 2-10 alkenyl, C 2-10 alkynyl, C 3-10 cycloalkyl, heteroaryl and aryl, each group being optionally substituted, or R 1 and R 2 are linked to form, together with the nitrogen atom to which they are attached, an optionally substituted monocyclic or polycyclic, saturated or unsaturated ring system that contains 3 to 30 carbon atoms, of which one or more of the carbon atoms is optionally replaced with a heteromoiety selected from O, S, NH and NC 1-6 alkyl, and/or R 3 and R 4 are linked to form, together with the nitrogen atom to which they are attached, an optionally substituted monocyclic or polycyclic, saturated or unsaturated ring system that contains 3 to 30 carbon atoms, of which one or more of the carbon atoms is optionally replaced with a heteromoiety selected from O, S, NH and NC 1-6 alkyl, the optional substituents R 1 , R 2 , R 3 and R 4 on are independently selected from one or more of C 1-6 alkyl, halo, halo-substituted C 1-6 alkyl, OC 1-6 alkyl, halo-substituted OC 1-6 alkyl, C 3-10 cycloalkyl, aryl and heteroaryl, and at least one of R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 4 , the ring system formed by R 1 and R 2 and the ring system formed by R 3 and R 4 , or a substituent thereon, comprises at least one chiral center; X is a neutral or an anionic ligand; and n is an integer representing the number of ligands, X, to fulfill the valency requirements of N, and when x is greater than 1, each X may be the same or different.