This review describes advances in the literature since 2000 in the area of reactions of vinylsulfonium and vinylsulfoxonium salts, with a particular emphasis on stereoselective examples. Although the chemistry of vinylsulfonium salts was first explored back in the 1950s, and that of vinylsulfoxonium salts in the early 1970s, there has been renewed interest in these compounds since the turn of t...

The reaction of trimethylsilyl-substituted sulfonium ylides with organoboranes (Ph(3)B, Et(3)B) has been studied and although homologated products were obtained in good yield (after oxidation to the corresponding alcohols), the enantiomeric excesses were low with our camphor-based chiral sulfide (up to 40% ee, cf. corresponding phenyl-substituted sulfonium ylides gave >95% ee). Cross-over exper...

The mechanism and stereoselectivity of the aziridination reaction between guanidinium ylide and a series of para-substituted benzaldehydes have been studied by using density functional theory methods. The mechanistic details and analyses of the key elementary steps involved in (a) the addition of nitrogen ylide to benzaldehydes and (b) subsequent fragmentation of the resulting oxaspirocyclic in...

The asymmetric O-H insertion reaction is an ideal synthetic strategy for preparing optically pure alpha-alkoxy, alpha-aryloxy, and alpha-hydroxy carboxylic acid derivatives, which are valuable building blocks for the construction of natural products and other biologically active molecules. Surprisingly, to date there have been no reports of significant levels of enantiocontrol in the O-H insert...

The reaction of chiral sulfur ylides with aldehydes and ketones has emerged as a useful asymmetric process for the synthesis of epoxides. Processes employing either catalytic or stoichiometric amounts of sulfides have been developed. Although a large number of chiral sulfur ylides have been tested in the epoxidation process, only a few have delivered high diastereo- and enantio- selectivity. Th...