Oxazolines as chiral building blocks for imidazolium salts and N-heterocyclic carbene ligandsElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: spectroscopic data for 10 and 12. See http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/cc/b2/b208045a/

Enantiomerically pure imidazolium triflates can be readily prepared from bioxazolines and oxazolineimines; deprotonation of imidazolium triflate 2 gives a chiral N-heterocyclic carbene that can act as a ligand in a catalytically active palladium complex.