In the Golden Age of Organocatalysis

Abstract

The term "organocatalysis" describes the acceleration of chemical reactions through the addition of a substoichiometric quantity of an organic compound. The interest in this field has increased spectacularly in the last few years as result of both the novelty of the concept and, more importantly, the fact that the efficiency and selectivity of many organocatalytic reactions meet the standards of established organic reactions. Organocatalytic reactions are becoming powerful tools in the construction of complex molecular skeletons. The diverse examples show that in recent years organocatalysis has developed within organic chemistry into its own subdiscipline, whose "Golden Age" has already dawned.

Tailoring the Active Site of Chemzymes by Using a Chemogenetic‐Optimization Procedure: Towards Substrate‐Specific Artificial Hydrogenases Based on the Biotin–Avidin Technology

“…For the optimization of activity and selectivity, directed-evolution methodologies (combined with an efficient selection or screening tool) outperform combinatorial ligand libraries. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] With the hope of alleviating some of the inherent limitations of both enzymatic and organometallic catalysis, two approaches have recently witnessed a revival: 1) organocatalysis [14][15][16][17][18][19] and 2) artificial metalloenzymes based on either covalent [20,21] or supramolecular anchoring [22] of a catalytic moiety in a macromolecular host. [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] Inspired by the early works of Whitesides and Wilson, [22] we recently reported artificial metalloenzymes based on the biotin-avidin technology.…”

Ionic Liquid Immobilized Organocatalysts for Asymmetric Reactions in Aqueous Media

“…Recently, organocatalysis has emerged as the third pillar of asymmetric catalysis together with transition-metal and biocatalysis [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Compared with transition-metal catalysts, the cost and toxicity of organocatalysts are low, thus making organocatalysts beneficial for the production of OPEN ACCESS pharmaceutical intermediates.…”

Indolo[2,3-a]quinolizidines and Derivatives: Bioactivity and Asymmetric Synthesis

“…As well as producing far less waste is produced, new selective catalytic processes facilitate short-cuts in total synthesis. In recent years, asymmetric syntheses using organic compounds as catalysts have attracted considerable attention [87] as they are environmentally friendly compared with conventional transition metal catalysts.…”