Two sets of novel chiral oxazoline ligands were designed and conveniently prepared from readily available l-aspartic acid and evaluated in enantioselective diethylzinc addition to N- diphenylphosphinoyl imines. In the presence of stoichiometric amounts of these ligands, high enantioselectivities (up to 95% ee) and yields (up to 85%) were achieved for several aromatic imines in toluene at room temperature. Furthermore, the effect of the structure of ...