Organocatalysis is nowadays becoming more and more important subject of asymmetric synthesis, because one can now use small, simple organic molecules to establish chiral environment and, hence, effect the stereochemical outcome of a certain reaction as opposed to the use of variety of metal atoms and chiral ligands, which can be quite expensive and have a detrimental effect on environment or our health. In this thesis, I will present some of the most useful organocatalysts, i.e. catalysts, derived from natural cinchona alkaloids and their quaternary salts, L-proline catalysis, thiourea catalysts, and for this work the most important group, catalysts, which are derived from camphor scaffold. I will therefore put more emphasis on the latter group because of the experimental work that I have done in the laboratory, which included a four-step synthesis of a precursor to highly efficient organocatalysts. My starting material was commercially available 10-camphorsulfonic acid (CSA).
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