Nonenzymatic enantioselective synthesis of all-carbon quaternary centers through desymmetrization.

The asymmetric desymmetrization of meso or prochiral compounds containing an all-carbon quaternary center is an attractive alternative to classical synthetic approaches aimed at the asymmetric formation of a new C-C bond. This review focuses on nonenzymatic desymmetrizations that utilize transition metal catalysts or organocatalysts to distinguish between enantiotopic groups to generate enantioenriched compounds containing all-carbon quaternary stereocenters.