Ben Feringa’s group has found a simple and versatile way to make molecules in which the chiral centre sits on the phosphorus atom. They explain the possibilities in Angewandte Chemie.

Molecular structures with a chiral phosphorus atom appear in many areas of research, from bioactive and pharmaceutical compounds to ligands in asymmetric catalysts. But making them is not so easy, although some progress has been made recently. Xiao-Bing Chen, Damián Padín, Charlotte Stindt and Ben Feringa from the University of Groningen have now developed a method for the stereoselective synthesis of alkenylphosphonamidites, which you can bend to your will with minor adjustments to the reaction conditions.