Special Issue "Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Michael North
School of Chemistry, Bedson Building, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Website: http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/michael.north/
E-Mail:
Interests: catalytic asymmetric synthesis; carbon-carbon bonds formation

Dear Colleagues,

Asymmetric catalysis has a long a distinguished history (well over 100 years), yet it remains at the forefront of chemical research. Not only do chemists constantly seek to improve catalysts activity and enantioselectivity and to broaden their substrate scope, but catalysts for new reactions are constantly being developed and progress is being made in unconventional use of asymmetric catalysts, for example in cascade sequences and under unconventional reaction conditions (flow reactors, green solvents etc). The application of asymmetric catalysts under these conditions often requires their structural modification and/or immobilization. Thus, asymmetric catalysis encompasses both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis and aspects of chemical engineering are becoming increasingly relevant to the large scale application of asymmetric catalysts. Our depth of understanding of mechanisms in asymmetric catalysis is also rapidly increasing aided by the introduction of powerful new experimental and computational tools. Especially notable over the last ten years has been the renaissance of asymmetric organocatalysis.

Asymmetric catalysis also plays a central role in many other areas of chemistry. The pharmaceutical industry is steadily making increasing use of asymmetric catalysis as an attractive alternative to other more wasteful methods for the preparation of enantiomerically pure pharmaceuticals. Catalysis in general and asymmetric catalysis in particular is central to Green chemistry and the whole of biological chemistry is essentially the chemistry of Nature’s own asymmetric catalysts – enzymes. Indeed one of the currently unsolved major questions in science – how was life able to exploit enantiomerically pure building blocks? Is at least partly a question for asymmetric catalysis to answer through non-linear effects and autocatalytic asymmetric induction.

The aim of this special issue of Molecules is to bring together new research in the development and application of asymmetric catalysis to illustrate the state of the art. Work in all areas of asymmetric catalysis is welcome including, but not limited too:
- Development of metal based catalysts
- Development of organocatalysts and organocatalysed reactions
- Asymmetric Lewis base catalysis
- Enzyme catalysis
- Mechanistic studies on the mode of action of asymmetric catalysts
- Theoretical studies on asymmetric catalysis
- Application of asymmetric catalysis in synthesis
- Use of asymmetric catalysts in non-conventional solvents and reactors

I strongly encourage authors to submit their work to this special issue of Molecules and look forward to reading their contributions.

Prof. Dr. Michael North
Guest Editor

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs).

• asymmetric
• catalysis
• metal
• organocatalyst
• chiral-ligand