Abstract
The peculiar reactivity and the interesting biological properties of chiral organoselenium compounds inspired organic chemists to develop new methodologies for their synthesis. In recent years, interesting catalytic protocols have been found for the asymmetric synthesis of organoselenium compounds starting from prochiral or racemic starting materials. This chapter summarizes these novel strategies based on the use of chiral organometallic catalysts, organocatalysts and biocatalysts.
Keywords: Asymmetric synthesis, Organocatalysis, Organometallic catalysts, Chiral Selenides, Desymmetrizations, [2, 3]-sigmatropic rearrangements, Cyclopropanes, Spirolactones, Seleno aldehydes, Biocatalysts.