Toward Ideal Asymmetric Catalysis

Tremendous strides have been made over the past 50 years in the development of highly enantioselective catalytic asymmetric reactions. The major current challenge in the field of asymmetric catalysis is to improve synthetic efficiency to meet the standard of ideal synthesis, namely the development of ideal asymmetric catalysis, for the sustainable development of modern society. One effective way to develop ideal asymmetric catalysis is to invent powerful and practical chiral catalysts. This chapter chooses three important reactions, aldol reaction (C-C bond forming reaction), α-amination of carbonyl compounds (C-N bond forming reaction), and Diels-Alder reaction (simultaneous formation of multiple bonds), to demonstrate how the advent of new activation models and new chiral catalysts significantly improve the synthetic efficiency and make related asymmetric reactions more ideal. It then introduces some emblematic cooperation models to demonstrate the powerfulness of cooperation of multiple catalysts.