Catalytic Enantioselective Methods for Synthesis of 1,2-Amino Tertiary Alcohols and Their Analogues

Vicinal amino alcohols, also called 1,2- or β-amino alcohols, are an important class of chemical modalities that may serve as chiral ligands for metal-based catalysts or as catalysts themselves and are found within numerous pharmaceutically active compounds. As such, a multitude of strategies have been adopted for their preparation, with traditional approaches leveraging diastereoselective synthesis of this scaffold based upon existing stereochemistry within a substrate. Many times, naturally occurring chiral variants or syntheses of the moiety from chiral natural sources have been utilized. Given their prominence, there have been myriad strategies developed for the catalytic enantioselective synthesis of β-amino alcohols; however, these have largely focused on the formation of secondary alcohols. In this Review, we detail the existing methods in the significantly less explored area of the catalytic enantioselective preparation of 1,2-amino tertiary alcohols and their analogues.