ABSTRACT
One of the most important breakthroughs in chemical technology in the last two decades is the enantioselective synthesis of chiral organic materials via asymmetric catalytic reactions. Chiral materials are important for biological systems because the receptor sites in these systems are also composed of chiral materials. The importance of asymmetric catalysis is that the technology provides a path to produce large quantities of pure chiral materials by using only small amounts of chiral catalysts which serve as “templates” in the catalytic reaction. Although Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenations of prochiral enamides have been extensively studied and excellent results have been frequently achieved, the catalytic asymmetric hydrogenations of 2-arylacrylic acids have been less successful.
