The search for an easily-prepared sparteine surrogate

(−)-Sparteine has proven itself to be a highly efficient and versatile ligand. However, in recent years it has become difficult to source. In addition the (+)-enantiomer is also not readily available. Here we report a suite of chiral diamines as potential sparteine surrogates. Chiral trans-1,2-diaminocyclohexane is commercially available in both enantiomeric forms and the parent structure can be easily modified. New (and known) chiral diamines have been tested in the asymmetric silylation of N-Boc pyrrolidine, N-Boc piperidine, the α-alkylation of dimethylhydrazones and in the rearrangement of meso-epoxides. While none match the selectivity of the highly evolved natural product, there is certainly potential for this class of diamine ligands to perform in a diverse set of asymmetric transformations.