Catalytic asymmetric
C–C bond formation with alkylcopper
intermediates as carbon nucleophiles is now textbook chemistry. Related
chemistry with boron and silicon nucleophiles where the boryl- and
accordingly silylcopper intermediates are catalytically regenerated
from bench-stable pronucleophiles had been underdeveloped for years
or did not even exist until recently. Over the past decade, asymmetric
copper catalysis employing those main-group elements as nucleophiles
rapidly transformed into a huge field in its own right with an impressive
breadth of enantioselective C–B and C–Si bond-forming
reactions, respectively. Its current state of the art does not have
to shy away from comparison with that of boron’s and silicon’s
common neighbor in the periodic table, carbon. This Outlook is not
meant to be a detailed summary of those manifold advances. It rather
aims at providing a brief conceptual summary of what forms the basis
of the latest exciting progress, especially in the area of three-component
reactions and cross-coupling reactions.