Organocatalyzed Asymmetric Friedel–Crafts Reactions

Abstract

Abstract Aromatic substitution enables the synthesis of relevant and promising biological entities through the direct synthesis of a range of highly functionalized compounds. Thus, since its discovery and over more than one century, the Friedel–Crafts (F‐C) alkylation has been used for carrying out such a transformation. Despite its aptitude and viability for aromatic substitutions, it is quite surprisingly that catalytic and asymmetric versions of F‐C reactions have only been described in the mid‐1980s. In this microreview, we are planning to underscore the main and recent developments in organocatalyzed F‐C reactions which were published within the 2001–2009 timeframe.