Recent Advances in the Use of Chiral Bronsted Acids as Cooperative Catalysts in Cascade and Multicomponent Reactions

In recent years, chiral Bronsted acid catalysts have been widely used in numerous enantioselective carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bond-forming reactions. Cascade/domino reactions and multicomponent reactions provide highly efficient, operationally simple, and atom-economical approaches to the synthesis of polyfunctional complex molecules that are useful for modern organic chemistry and drug discovery. The control of stereoselectivity in these reactions remains a great challenge. Chiral Bronsted acid catalysts were rationally introduced as bifunctional catalysts to achieve synergetic catalysis for well-controlled stereoselectivity. The synergy between chiral Bronsted acid catalysts and other compatible catalysts provides additional avenues for the discovery of novel organic transformations and improves reaction selectivity as well. In this Focus Review, recent advances in the uses of chiral Bronsted acids as cooperative catalysts in asymmetric cascade/multicomponent reactions are summarized.