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Organic chemistry

Catalysis marches on

Nature volume 508, pages 324–325 (2014)Cite this article

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A fresh take on an established chemical reaction has solved a long-standing problem in organic synthesis: how to prepare single mirror-image isomers of groups known as isolated quaternary stereocentres. See Article p.340

The production of a wide array of compounds, ranging from polymers to liquid crystals to human therapeutics, depends on stereoselective synthesis, which enables three-dimensional control over the isomer of the product that forms. Not surprisingly, the more stereoselective reactions that chemists have in their toolbox, the more efficiently they can construct these materials. One tool that is not well developed is a method for the stereoselective construction of quaternary stereocentres — in which a carbon atom is bonded to the carbon atoms of four other distinct appendages — at positions that are remote from any other groups in a molecule. In this issue, Sigman and colleagues1 (page 340) describe a process that accomplishes just that.

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Figure 1: Enantiomeric synthesis of quaternary stereocentres.

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  1. James P. Morken is in the Department of Chemistry, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467, USA.,

    James P. Morken

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  1. James P. Morken
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Correspondence to James P. Morken.

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Morken, J. Catalysis marches on. Nature 508, 324–325 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13225

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