Development of homogeneous and heterogeneous asymmetric catalysts for practical enantioselective reactions*

Two strategies for the development of practical asymmetric catalysis have been discussed in this article. The first part of this article focuses on the design and screening of highly efficient and enantioselective chiral catalysts for asymmetric hydrogenation reactions employing combinatorial approach. The second part presents a conceptually new strategy (i.e., “self-supporting” approach) for the immobilization of homogeneous catalysts through assembly of chiral multitopic ligands and metal ions without using any support. The success of this strategy will be exemplified in heterogeneous asymmetric carbonyl-ene, sulfoxidation, and epoxidation, as well as in asymmetric hydrogenation reactions.