Tools for studying aqueous enantioselective lanthanide-catalyzed Mukaiyama aldol reactions

Enantioselective bond-forming reactions catalyzed by chiral lanthanide-based complexes are popular because of their Lewis acidity, solvent compatibility, reusability, and potential to catalyze reactions with high stereospecificity. The stereospecific outcomes of bond-forming reactions catalyzed by asymmetric lanthanide-based precatalysts depend on the coordination chemistry of the precatalysts that can be interrogated with X-ray crystal structures, luminescence measurements, NMR spectroscopy, and computational methods. This review is primarily focused on developments related to lanthanide-based precatalysts since the turn of the century and the techniques used to study coordination environments of lanthanide-based precatalysts for Mukaiyama aldol reactions in aqueous media.