The Magnesium(II)-Catalyzed Asymmetric Ketone-Ene Reaction under Solvent-Free Conditions: Stereocontrolled Access to Enantioenriched Trifluoromethyl-Substituted Compounds

Asymmetric magnesium catalysis for important chiral scaffold synthesis

Magnesium catalysts are widely used in catalytic asymmetric reactions, and a series of catalytic strategies have been developed in recent years. Herein, in this review, we have tried to summarize asymmetric magnesium catalysis for the synthesis of important chiral scaffolds. Several important optically active motifs that are present in classic chiral ligands or natural products synthesized by Mg(II) catalytic methods are briefly discussed. Moreover, the representative mechanisms for different magnesium catalytic strategies, including in situ generated magnesium catalysts, are also shown in relation to synthetic routes for obtaining these important chiral scaffolds.

Cooperative Hydrogen-Bond-Donor Catalysis with Hydrogen Chloride Enables Highly Enantioselective Prins Cyclization Reactions

Cooperative asymmetric catalysis with hydrogen chloride (HCl) and chiral dual-hydrogen-bond donors (HBDs) is applied successfully to highly enantioselective Prins cyclization reactions of a wide variety of simple alkenyl aldehydes. The optimal chiral catalysts were designed to withstand the strongly acidic reaction conditions and were found to induce rate accelerations of 2 orders of magnitude over reactions catalyzed by HCl alone. We propose that the combination of strong mineral acids and chiral hydrogen-bond-donor catalysts may represent a general strategy for inducing enantioselectivity in reactions that require highly acidic conditions.

Enantioselective magnesium-catalyzed transformations

This review updates the major progress in the field of enantioselective transformations promoted by chiral magnesium catalysts, covering the literature since 2007, illustrating the power of these green catalysts to promote many types of reactions.

Asymmetric Latent Carbocation Catalysis with Chiral Trityl Phosphate

Stable carbocations such as tritylium ions have been widely explored as organic Lewis acid catalysts and reagents in organic synthesis. However, achieving asymmetric carbocation catalysis remains elusive ever since they were first identified over one century ago. The challenges mainly come from their limited compatibility, scarcity of chiral carbocations, as well as the extremely low barrier to racemization of chiral carbenium ions. We reported here a latent concept for asymmetric carbocation catalysis. In this strategy, chiral trityl phosphate is employed as the carbocation precursor, which undergoes facile ionic dissociation upon mild external stimulation (e.g., acid, H-bonding, polar substrates) to form a catalytically active chiral ion pair for substrate activation and chiral induction. The latent strategy provides a solution for the long sought-after asymmetric carbocation catalysis as illustrated in three different enantioselective transformations.

BINOL-Al catalysed asymmetric cyclization and amplification: preparation of optically active menthol analogs

We report a highly selective asymmetric ring-closing ene reaction catalysed by aluminum complexes with chiral BINOL. This reaction yields optically active 6-membered cyclized alcohols from unsaturated aldehydes, with good diastereo- and enantioselectivities. Asymmetric amplification of this reaction was investigated by varying the ee of the BINOL employed in the catalyst.

Enantioselective catalytic transannular ketone-ene reactions

Highly enantio- and diastereoselective transannular ketone-ene reactions are catalyzed by a new chromium(III) triflate tridentate Schiff base complex. Electronically unactivated keto-olefins undergo heteroene reactions at ambient temperature to afford enantioenriched bicyclic alcohols, common structural motifs in natural products. The kinetic resolution of a configurationally stable planar-chiral cyclodecenone is also described.