New Concepts for Catalysis

Organocatalysis, the catalysis with low-molecular weight catalysts where a metal is not part of the catalytic principle, can be as efficient and selective as metal- or biocatalysis. Important discoveries in this area include novel Lewis base-catalyzed enantioselective processes and, more recently, simple Brønsted acid organocatalysts that rival the efficiency of traditional metal-based asymmetric Lewis acid-cata-lysts. Contributions to organocatalysis from our laboratories include several new and broadly useful concepts such as enamine catalysis and asymmetric counteranion directed catalysis. Our lab has discov-ered the proline-catalyzed direct asymmetric intermolecular aldol reac-tion and introduced several other organocatalytic reactions