Chiral Lewis Acid in Catalytic Asymmetric Reactions

Abstract

Recent development in the field of asymmetric reactions has realized various efficient procedures to prepare highly optically active compounds by employing chiral Lewis acids. In this review are summarized the development of the chiral Lewis acids and the application to asymmetric reactions such as the Diels-Alder reaction, [2 + 2] cycloaddition reaction, alkylation reaction, hydrocyanation etc. Structures of the complexs between carbonyl compounds and Lewis acids are briefly discussed. © 1990, The Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan. All rights reserved.