Chiral amine-protonic acids are highly efficient and excellent enantioselective organocatalysts developed in recent years. They have been successfully applied to a number of enantioselective organic reactions, such as asymmetric aldol condenstion, Michael addition, Diels-Alder cycloaddition, Strecker reaction and so on. The introduction of cheap protonic acids can accelerate the formation of an active enanmine intermediate and stabilize the transition state by hydrogen bonding. Consequently, catalytic activity and enantioselectivity of the catalysis system are remarkably increased. The application of chiral amine-protonic acid catalysts to asymmetric synthesis, the mechanism of asymmetric inducement, and the influence of the structure of chiral amine-protonic acids on the catalytic efficience and enantioselectivity are reviewed in this paper.

Key words: asymmetric organocatalysis, protonic acid, chiral amine