The bright future of stereoselective synthesis of co-ordination compounds

Transfer of chirality during the build-up of molecules has been applied innumerable times in organic chemistry since the end of the 19th century, when it was introduced in the so-called asymmetric synthesis by E. Fischer. Although analogous reactions were introduced in co-ordination chemistry in its early development, diastereoselective reactions have not been applied in a very systematic way for co-ordination species. The highly versatile co-ordination geometry of metal centres makes the synthesis of a selected stereoisomer in general a formidable task. In the present article an account on new developments in the field is given, focussing on recently synthesized molecules, where natural chiral products are used to create a large number of chiral ligands which predetermine the chirality at metal centres.