“…7 We have now demonstrated that the additional thiophene moiety present in ligand 1g has a beneficial effect on the outcome of the reaction, especially when sterically small and highly reactive acylation reagents, such as acetyl chloride or acetic anhydride, are used. Based on precedents in the literature, [26][27][28][29][30] the thiophene sulfur atom should coordinate only weakly to the copper ion, but we propose that this might further confine the asymmetric pocket in a manner that is decisive for discrimination between the two enantiomers in the kinetic resolution (see Supporting Information, Figure S57). Attempts to crystallize the complexes formed from Cu(II) and the thiophene ligands unfortunately failed; consequently, the exact structure of the Cu(II) complex is unknown.…”