Asymmetric Hydroformylation

Rhodium is currently the metal of choice to achieve high enantioselectivities in the hydroformylation of a relatively wide variety of alkene substrates. The elucidation of the different steps of the catalytic cycle and the characterization of the resting state, together with the discovery of several types of ligands that are able to provide high enantioselectivities, have made the rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation a synthetically useful tool. For years, ligands containing phosphite moieties such as diphosphites and phosphine-phosphites were considered the most successful ligands to achieve high enantioselectivities for classical substrates such as styrene and vinyl acetate. In fact, the phosphite-phosphine BINAPHOS (43) and its derivatives are still today the most successful ligands in terms of selectivity and scope. For more substituted substrates, general trends can be extracted. However, recent studies showed that these general trends can be sometimes reversed by the use of the appropriate catalyst and choice of reaction conditions, clearly showing that these trends are only indicative and that there are still many challenges to be tackled in this area.