Rational Design of Chiral Catalysts Based on Experimental Data and Reaction Mechanism

Abstract

Asymmetric catalysis is the most efficient chiral synthesis strategy. Chemists have already developed a variety of catalysts to achieve many asymmetric transformations. However, most of the deveoped chiral catalysts and the asymmetric catalytic reactions were developed on the basis of trios-errors approaches involving massive random screening. How to effectively obtain catalysts with higher activity and selectivity is still a challenge. In recent years, the rapid development of physical organic chemistry and computational chemistry has greatly facilitated the study of the reaction mechanism and the origin of selectivity, setting basis for rational catalyst design and evolution. This review will briefly introduce some representative works on the rational design of chiral catalysts in recent years, including rational design based on structure-activity relationship analysis, rational design based on reaction mechanism research, and computational design of enzymes.