A Formidable Challenge: Catalytic Asymmetric Dichlorination

摘要

The publication of a new asymmetric transformation in one of the leading chemistry journals is usually granted when authors demonstrate significant substrate generality and achieve high enantioselectivity well above the 90% ee threshold. In some cases, meeting this target could be facilitated by extensive empirical testing exploiting new analytical technologies or methodologies such as organo-catalysis, which are suitable for high-throughput screening. In other cases, authors will face more conceptual challenges. Yet is the simple search for a numeric value really the toughest challenge that researchers have to overcome?