In 1825, William C. Zeise synthesized K[PtCl3(C2H4)], the first organometallic
compound of a transition metal.[1] Since then, organometallic chemistry has grown
considerably. A stimulus to the growth of this branch of chemistry was the discovery
that transition metals are able to catalyze organic transformations. Indeed, there are
many transformations that are only possible with metal catalysts, e.g. Heck reaction
and C–C coupling reactions, carbonylation of aryl halides, hydroformylation of olefins,
metathesis of olefins. The impact of homogeneous catalysis on industrial process
technology has grown in the past 35 years to the same extent that organometallic
chemistry has developed as a science.[2] Homogeneous catalysis and organometallic
chemistry have stimulated and supported each other since the early days of
hydroformylation (1938), olefin polymerization (1953) and acetaldehyde synthesis
(1959).
In the last two decades, stereoselective syntheses and, in particular, asymmetric
catalyses have gained a great deal of attention. For many applications of chiral
compounds the racemic form will no longer be accepted. As a consequence, the
importance of enantioselective synthesis in general and of enantioselective catalysis
in particular has increased. Four general approaches for the production of
enantiopure or enantioenriched compounds have evolved:
• separation of enantiomers via classical resolution
• the chiral pool approach
• enantioselective synthesis
• enantioselective catalysis
