Organo/Transition-Metal Combined Catalysis Rejuvenates Both in Asymmetric Synthesis.

Abstract

Since its advent two decades ago, asymmetric organo/transition-metal combined catalysis (AOMC), including cooperative catalysis and relay catalysis, has leveraged redistribution of chemical bonds to build up molecular complexity and enantio-differentiation to form individual enantiomers with activations from versatile organocatalysts and transition-metal complexes. The goal of this perspective is to provide readers with the fundamental attributes of AOMC─orthogonality, kinetics, mechanism, and selectivity─to understand how an organocatalyst and a transition-metal complex would collaborate to enable fruitful new reaction development and what are the intrinsic pathways of unproductive events, such as catalyst self-quenching. In closing, future opportunities of AOMC have been directed toward the prediction of effective catalyst combination, introducing enzyme catalysis, and a focus on transient radical intermediate, to animate this area in the years to come.