Chirality Control in Photochemical Reactions: Enantioselective Formation of Complex Photoproducts in Solution

Abstract

In recent years, new methods have been developed that allow for the photochemical formation of enantiomerically pure or enantiomerically enriched compounds in solution. Major strategies presented in this review rely on the use of chiral complexing agents either in a supermolecular assembly or in a defined 1:1 substrate-template complex. In addition, organocatalytic approaches and a chirality transfer from inherently chiral substrates obtained by spontaneous crystallization are discussed. Synthetic applications show that the area of enantioselective photochemistry has left the state of infancy and is about to become a mature but continuously challenging area of modern chemistry.