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A photoswitchable catalyst for the enantiodivergent epoxidation of alkenes

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Coordination of a photoswitchable chiral phosphate ligand to an achiral manganese(iii)-salen complex yields a catalyst that can produce either enantiomer of an epoxide from a single alkene substrate. This enantiodivergent catalysis is governed by the transfer of the chirality of the phosphate ligand to the manganese(iii)-salen complex.

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Fig. 1: Photochemical isomerization of metal–ligand complex Mn2.

References

  1. Dorel, R. & Feringa, B. L. Photoswitchable catalysis based on the isomerisation of double bonds. Chem. Commun. 55, 6477–6486 (2019). A review article that presents various kinds of photoswitchable catalysts and also highlights photoswitchable enantiodivergent catalysts.

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This is a summary of: Chen, X. et al. Enantiodivergent epoxidation of alkenes with a photoswitchable phosphate manganese-salen complex. Nat. Synth. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-022-00157-7 (2022).

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A photoswitchable catalyst for the enantiodivergent epoxidation of alkenes. Nat. Synth 1, 837–838 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-022-00160-y

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