New concepts for organocatalysis.

Abstract

Organocatalysis, catalysis with low-molecular weight catalysts in which a metal is not part of the catalytic principle or the reaction substrate, can be as efficient and selective as metal- or biocatalysis. Important discoveries in this area include novel Lewis base-catalyzed enantioselective processes and, more recently, simple Brønsted acid organocatalysts that rival the efficiency of traditional metal-based asymmetric Lewis acid-catalysts. Contributions to organocatalysis from our laboratories include several new and broadly useful concepts such as enamine catalysis and asymmetric counteranion-directed catalysis. Our laboratory has discovered the proline-catalyzed direct asymmetric intermolecular aldol reaction and introduced several other organocatalytic reactions.