Expeditious preparation of β- sec -alkyl vicinal amino alcohols used for chiral ligand synthesis.

An economical route providing quick access to chiral β-amino alcohols bearing one β- sec -alkyl group was developed. This protocol starts with commercially available and cheap chiral sources such as derivatives of L-serine and L-threonine. A series of vicinal amino alcohols with high optical purity were prepared in good yields through 4 or 6 operationally simple steps. Two different strategies (three routes) were designed for the synthesis of amino alcohols bearing β- sec -alkyl groups with various steric hindrance.