Chiral Lewis acid
Chiral Lewis acids CLAs are the type of Lewis acid catalyst. These acids impact the chirality of a substrate as they react with it. In such(a) reactions, synthesis favors the cut of a particular enantiomer or diastereomer. The method is an enantioselective asymmetric synthesis reaction. Since they impact chirality, they realise optically active products from optically inactive or mixed starting materials. This type of preferential ordering of one enantiomer or diastereomer over the other is formally invited as asymmetric induction. In this classification of Lewis acid, the electron-accepting atom is typically a metal, such as indium, zinc, lithium, aluminium, titanium, or boron. The chiral-altering ligands employed for synthesizing these acids often do multinational Lewis basic sites often a diol or a dinitrogen structure that let the formation of a ring structure involving the metal atom.
Achiral Lewis acids develope been used for decades to promote the synthesis of racemic mixtures in myriad different reactions. Since the 1960s, chemists have used Chiral Lewis acids to induce enantioselective reactions. This is useful when the desired product is a specific enantiomer, as is common in drug synthesis. Common reaction mark include Diels-Alder reactions, the ene reaction, [2+2] cycloaddition reactions, hydrocyanation of aldehydes, and near notably, Sharpless epoxidations.