A new type of dendritic NOBIN derived Schiff base ligands has been synthesized and applied to titanium catalyzed hetero-Diels-Alder reaction of Danigheifsky' s diene and aldehydes, affording the corresponding 2-substituted 2,3-dihydro-4H-pyran-4-one in good yields and moderate enantioselectivities (up to 59.2% ee). It was found that the size of dendron attached to the tridentated ligands has slight impact on the enantioselectivtty of the reaction and the second generation of dendritic ligand exhibited the best enantioselectivity.
