Dual Catalysis in Organic Synthesis: Current Challenges and New Trends

Abstract

Dual catalysis is one of the most powerful strategies for the development of chemical reactions in organic synthesis. This strategy can be divided into cooperative catalysis, relay catalysis, and sequential catalysis according to the actual mode of operation and the communication between the catalysts. In recent years, such strategy has been applied in a large number of studies since it has the advantages of: 1) increasing reactivity and enabling challenging transformations; 2) offering a powerful way of controlling the stereoselectivity of asymmetric reactions, which is challenging for traditional catalytic systems; 3) catalyze the stereodivergent synthesis of molecules bearing one or more stereocenters from the same starting materials. This Perspective, which intends to introduce the reader to EurJOC special collection on Dual Catalysis , aims to summarize and introduce the different categories of dual catalysis and demonstrate their benefits in constructing new chemical bonds in a selective manner. Finally, current challenges and new trends in dual catalysis will be also presented.

Diastereodivergent Catalysis

“…Conversely, the construction of two or more stereogenic units in a single transformation constitutes a very efficient means to obtain stereochemically well-defined and highly functionalized products by rapidly increasing the stereochemical complexity. Following this approach, single-catalyst methods or dual catalytic systems − are conceivable (Figure C). Whereas in the former, one catalyst activates and guides two reaction partners through a distinct reaction pathway that selectively affords one of the multiple stereoisomers, the stereochemical outcome of the reaction in dual catalytic systems is determined by the combination of two catalysts.…”

Variable structure diversification by multicatalysis: the case of alcohols

“…11 Recently, inspired by biological systems, a trend has emerged in the field of catalysis, which involves using multiple catalysts to execute several transformations in one vessel, increasing the general efficiency and creating new selective transformations. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] For instance, multicatalysis proved to enable modifying molecules at their inherently poorly reactive sites thanks to the cooperativity between two orthogonal reactions operating in a one-pot. Also, merging multiple reactions into a one-step process makes the overall transformations more time-efficient, economical, and easier to execute for an experimenter.…”

“…26 The field of multicatalysis has undergone vigorous growth over recent years, enabling a broad range of highly selective transformations for various classes of starting materials, and has been the subject of multiple reviews. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] In this Feature article, we focus on different aspects of the design and development of such multicatalytic systems, their advantages, and their challenges, for modifying the structure of alcohol-containing molecules (Fig. 1).…”

Molecular Insights into Photochemical Hydrogen Evolution Dual Catalysis within the Shell of Polymer Micelle-Based Nanoreactors

“…From the perspective of catalysis in homogeneous media, there has been growing interest in dual catalysis, wherein multiple catalysts have been employed simultaneously or sequentially, within the past decade. , Dual catalysis has the potential advantages of increased reactivity and selectivity via the combination of several catalysts and facilitates reactions that may be unfeasible using single-catalyst systems. In particular, the dual catalytic system with a photocatalyst is of importance because the system can convert photochemical energy into chemical potential to transform chemicals .…”