Asymmetric Tandem Reactions Achieved by Chiral Amine & Gold(I) Cooperative Catalysis

Abstract

Cooperative catalysis is a powerful strategy to improve the efficiency and selectivity of organic reactions. It is of current interest in asymmetric catalysis to combine different catalysts to secure synergistic effects to realize high reaction activity and selectivity unattainable by a single catalyst, and to develop challenging new reactions. Depending on their structures, chiral amines can activate aldehydes or ketones with α-protons, conjugated enals or enones, activated methine or methylene compounds via enamine catalysis, iminium catalysis or deprotonative activation. On the other hand, cationic gold(I) catalysis can efficiently activate olefins, alkynes or diazo compounds for functionalization reactions. Therefore, it has attracted ever-increasing attention to combine the reactivity patterns of the two types of catalysts to develop asymmetric tandem reactions, and paves a facile way to construct complex chiral compounds from simple starting materials. The purpose of this review is to introduce the asymmetric tandem reactions achieved by chiral amine & gold(I) catalysis, focusing on the advantages of such type of cooperative catalysis, the way to avoid catalyst deactivation, as well as its future development, so as to provide some useful references for researchers engaged in asymmetric catalysis.