ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on chiral templates that transfer the chiral information in a ground state complex in solution, and it considers results published before the beginning of 2003. The chiral template desirably forms a stable and specific complex with the ground state substrate or the photochemically produced reactive intermediate employing noncovalent interactions. The chiral templates that will be dicussed within this review are classified into several categories: chiral solvents that provide a chiral environment without specific binding, chiral Bronsted acids that act as proton donor in the enantiodifferentiating step and chiral transition metal complexes that catalyze the enantiodifferentiating step. The complexing agents employed in enantioselective photoreactions were natural templates such as cyclodextrins or bovine serum albumin. Several of the compounds that can already be produced with high enantioselectivity are potential intermediates in the synthesis of more complex biologically active compounds.
