Organocatalytic Remote Stereocontrolled Additions of In Situ Formed Electron-Deficient Conjugate Systems

Conjugate addition is one of the most powerful and practical methods for the formation of carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds in organic synthesis. Owing to the rapid development of asymmetric catalysis, significant progress has been made in the field of asymmetric conjugate addition, such as 1,4-addition and 1,6-addition. However, formidable challenge of controlling chemo-, regio- and stereoselectivity arises with the extended conjugated systems. Recently, with the aid of Bronsted acids catalysis, functionalized benzyl alcohols and indolylmethanols has been successfully developed as suitable precursors of electron-deficient conjugate systems for organocatalytic remote stereocontrolled conjugate additions. This review investigates the advances in the field of organocatalytic enantioselective 1,8-conjugate addition and 1,10-conjugate addition of in situ formed electron-deficient conjugate systems from functionalized alcohols, which is organized according to the substrates.