Phosphine-Catalyzed Asymmetric Organic Reactions

Asymmetric phosphine catalysis showcasing remarkable progress over the past two decades has emerged as a key synthetic platform for the creation of molecular frameworks encountered in medicinal chemistry and materials science. Different types of novel chiral phosphine catalysts have been developed and employed in cornucopias of organic transformations, such as annulation, addition, Morita-Baylis-Hillman, and Rauhut-Currier reactions, among others. This review summarizes all of the literature examples from late 1990s to the end of 2017, alongside their mechanistic insights whenever possible, with a very aim to trigger more intensive research in the future to render asymmetric phosphine catalysis one of the most common and reliable tools to organic chemists.