Recent Advances in Enantioselective Desymmetrization Enabled by Chiral Phosphoric Acid Catalysis

Enantioselective desymmetrization represents an efficient strategy for accessing enantioenriched products from relatively simple achiral starting materials, and it has been widely recognized as a pivotal approach in asymmetric synthesis. As one of the most versatile organocatalysts identified to date, chiral phosphoric acids (CPAs) have been extensively applied in the aforementioned research field. In this review, we summarized the substantial advances in enantioselective desymmetrization reactions enabled by CPA catalysis. Additionally, representative cases involving CPAs as cooperative catalysts are also discussed in detail.