Enantioselective Catalysis

The utilisation of chiral coordination complexes as catalysts is referred to as enantioselective catalysis (also known traditionally as asymmetric catalysis). Typically, chiral ligands are used to make the catalysts chiral. The majority of enantioselective catalysts work effectively at low concentrations, making them suitable for synthesis on an industrial scale even when using rare and expensive catalysts. The ability to decrease a range of functional groups by asymmetric hydrogenation makes it one of the most flexible enantioselective synthesis methods. The creation of novel ligands dominates the design of new chiral catalysts. An ion or molecule (functional group) that binds to a main metal atom to create a coordination complex is known as a ligand. Metal catalysed enantioselective synthesis was invented by William S. Knowles and R. Noyori. A significant development in stereo-selective organic synthesis was the discovery of BINAP — Ru (II) complex catalysts. These catalysts have a wide range of potential applications. These chiral Ru complexes function as catalyst precursors for the extremely enantioselective hydrogenation of a variety of, and, — unsaturated carboxylic acids.