Asymmetric carbon-carbon bond formation under continuous-flow conditions with chiral heterogeneous catalysts

Abstract

Catalytic asymmetric carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions provide one of the most efficient ways to synthesize optically active compounds, and, accordingly, many chiral catalysts for these reactions have been developed in the past two decades. However, the efficiency of the catalysts in terms of turnover number (TON) is often lower than that of some other reactions, such as asymmetric hydrogenation, and this has been one of the obstacles for industrial applications. Although there are some difficulties in increasing the efficiency, the issues might be solved by using continuous flow in the presence of chiral heterogeneous catalysts. Indeed, continuous-flow systems have several advantages over conventional batch systems. Here we summarize the recent progress in asymmetric C-C bond-forming reactions under continuous-flow conditions with chiral heterogeneous catalysts.