The Design of Environmentally-Benign, High-Performance Organocatalysts for Asymmetric Catalysis

Abstract

By the end of the 20 th century several advantages of organocatalysis, for example environmental friendliness, operational simplicity, mild reaction conditions etc., had led to its recognition as a powerful principle for the establishment of practical organic synthetic methods. Over the two decades since then tremendous effort has been devoted to the design of novel organocatalysts able to realize unprecedented reactions. In this review our recent results on the design and development of various types of organocatalysts, such as organobase, organoacid, organoacid/base and organoradical catalysts, and their application to a wide variety of synthetic transformations are described. Scheme 1. Asymmetric, phase transfer alkylation of a prochiral, protected glycine derivative.