4.15 C–C Bond Formation

Abstract

Radical chemistry is amenable to ‘green’ chemistry based on the performance in water and with a variety of cheap, environmentally benign reagents. Radical chemistry has developed into one of the most powerful tools for carboncarbon bond formation in organic synthesis. Enantioselective radical reactions have been intensively studied over the past 10 years and, although many important advances have been made by using chiral Lewis acids, it is far from a mature area and particularly, enantioselective approaches via catalysts remain largely elusive. However, very recent works on enantioselective organocatalytic radical reaction undoubtedly show one new avenue that will be pursued in the coming years. The chapter concentrates on carboncarbon bond formation via the route involving enantioselective catalytic radical reaction covering the literatures available from 2001 through 2010. Research into radical chemistry continues to blossom and the future is well assured.