The history of silyl cations has all the makings of a drama but with a happy ending. Being
considered reactive intermediates impossible to isolate in the condensed phase for …

In contrast to Lewis-acid catalysts, Brønsted acids have been employed primarily as
catalysts for the formation and cleavage of C− O bonds, such as hydrolysis and formation of …

Lewis acids play a major role in all areas of chemistry. For a long time, toxic, corrosive and
oxidizing SbF5 was considered as the strongest Lewis acid known. Lately, species …

Since the groundbreaking reports by the groups of Akiyama and Terada on the use of BINOL-
derived phosphoric acids as organocatalysts, 1, 2 the area of enantioselective Brønsted acid …

Can green chemistry be the right reading key to let organocatalyst design take a step
forward towards sustainable catalysis? What if the intriguing chemistry promoted by more …

Silylium ion equivalents have shown promise as Lewis acid catalysts for a range of
important C–C bond-forming reactions. Here we describe chiral C–H acids that upon in situ …

Herein we describe the development of a catalytic enantioselective alkynylogous
Mukaiyama aldol reaction. The reaction is catalyzed by a newly designed chiral …

High-level quantum electronic structure calculations are used to provide a deep insight into
the mechanism and stereocontrolling factors of two recently developed catalytic asymmetric …

In this study, water was demonstrated to be an exceptionally efficient reaction medium for
the noncovalent, hydrogen-bonding-promoted enantioselective Michael addition of …

Axially chiral biaryl motifs possessing ortho-heteroatom-substituted functionalities exist
widely in the structures of natural products and have served as foundation for constructing …