Privileged Chiral Catalysts: Selectivity and Generality in Enantioselective Catalysis (Camille & Henry Dreyfus Lecture)

Prof. Dr. Eric N. Jacobsen (Harvard University, USA)

Privileged chiral scaffolds—structures that have been demonstrated to induce high levels of enantioselectivity across a variety of mechanistically distinct reactions—have proven profoundly enabling to the discovery of new asymmetric catalytic reactions. This lecture will outline the development of a specific, new class of privileged chiral catalysts: dual H-bond donors (HBDs) bearing aryl-pyrrolidino-tert-leucine motifs. These HBD catalysts have proven broadly useful in a variety of C–C and C–heteroatom bond-forming processes, with enantioselectivity dictated primarily through selective stabilizing non-covalent interactions. Detailed case studies on the mechanism of enantioinduction with aryl-pyrrolidino-tert-leucine HBDs will be presented, highlighting the cooperative features of these simple organic molecules that are likely responsible for the privileged nature of this scaffold.

Camille & Henry Dreyfus Lectureship
In memory of the Dreyfus brothers, the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Inc. has established the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Lectureship at the University of Basel. The annual Lectureship brings a leading chemist from the United States to the Basel campus to deliver a series of talks, and to meet with faculty and students in order to enhance the relationship between Swiss and U.S. science.

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