Planar chiral phosphines displaying a new ferrocenophane scaffold have been prepared via a stereoselective approach. The P-cyclohexyl substituted phosphine affords high levels of asymmetric induction in the organocatalytic [3 + 2] annulation reaction between allenes and electron-poor olefins.

This Review deals with the asymmetric hydrogenation and asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of imines and some nitrogen‐containing heteroaromatic compounds to afford amines. Hydrogenation and transfer hydrogenation are covered in separate sections. Particular attention is devoted to the substrates, since this reaction is highly substrate dependent. In this way the general structural trends in imine hydrogenation are presented, highlighting the more challenging substrates. Since hydrogenation of acyclic and cyclic (including heteroaromatic) imines have some different features they are also presented separately. The catalytic systems are classified according to the metal, and focus on the most successful catalytic systems and metal–ligand combinations. The catalytic cycles for these hydrogenation processes are also proposed.

Copper-catalyzed borylation of a variety of organic halides with bis(pinacolato)diboron allows the preparation of diverse potassium organotrifluoroborates. The reactions are mild and general, providing access to a variety of interesting, boron-containing building blocks, including those containing piperidine, pyrrole, azetidine, tetrahydropyran and oxetane substructures. Representative Minisci reactions are reported for select examples.

The introduction of an alkoxyethyl moiety onto aromatic substructures has remained a long-standing challenge for synthetic organic chemists. The main reasons are the inherent instability of alkoxyethylmetallic species and the lack of general procedures to access them. A new method utilizing a cross-coupling strategy based on the exceptional properties of organotrifluoroborates has been developed, and the method allows an easy and efficient installation of this unit on a broad range of aryl and heteroaryl bromides.