不对称催化是合成手性化合物的一种直接且高效的方法, 其核心在于开发高效的手性催化剂, 以实现对底物的前手性面或前手性中心进行精准的手性识别. 尽管该领域在过去几十年中已取得显著进展, 但目前大多数工作都集中在含有芳基和烷基的底物上, 当取代基具有非常相似的空间和电性时, 却难以实现高对映选择性. 对仅有微小差异的取代基团进行精确的手性识别仍然是一个重大挑战. 传统方法中手性催化剂主要利用催化剂和底物之间的空间相互作用来控制立体选择性, 自然界中的酶则是利用有限的活性位点对有机转化进行精确控制. 综述了近年来基于细微差别取代化合物的精准识别及不对称催化反应研究进展, 涵盖金属催化、有机小分子催化和生物催化等内容.

Asymmetric catalysis is a direct and efficient method for synthesizing chiral compounds, with its core focus lying in the development of highly efficient chiral catalysts to achieve precise chiral recognition of prochiral faces or prochiral centers in substrates. Although significant progress has been made in this field over the past few decades, most current studies concentrate on substrates containing aryl and alkyl groups, while achieving high enantioselectivity remains challenging when substituents exhibit minimal steric and electronic differences. The precise chiral discrimination of substituents with subtle differences still constitutes a major challenge. In traditional approaches, chiral catalysts primarily rely on steric interactions between the catalyst and substrate to control stereoselectivity, whereas enzymes in nature utilize confined active sites to achieve precise regulation of organic transformations. The recent advances in the precise recognition of minimally diffe- rentiated substrates and their applications in asymmetric catalytic reactions, covering metal catalysis, organocatalysis, biocatalysis, and related areas are summarized.