Mind the gap! Steric-driven reductive desymmetrisation of malononitriles

<h2>Abstract</h2> Huang and coworkers recently demonstrated that a cobalt(I)-hydride complex, ligated with a finely tuned chiral bisoxazoline ligand, can selectively reduce disubstituted malononitriles by discriminating between enantiotopic nitrile groups. This reductive desymmetrisation strategy utilises the bulk industrial feedstock malononitrile to access nitrogen-rich enantioenriched products.