Enantioselective Organocatalysis and Superacid Activation: Challenges and Opportunities

Since the pioneer reports of the groups of Akiyama and Terada on Brønsted acid organocatalysis, this field never stopped growing with the development of ingenious strategies for the activation of challenging poorly reactive substrates. The development of superacidic organocatalysts is an important way to selectively functionalize reluctant electrophiles and other approaches have also emerged such as the combination of Lewis and Brønsted acids as well as the consecutive organocatalysis and superacid activation. This Concept aims to highlight these different strategies and demonstrate their complementarity.