Chirality transfer in metal-catalysed intermolecular addition reactions involving allenes

Abstract

Allene chemistry in the presence of transition metal complexes is nowadays a very important topic that underpins many challenges and advances in organic synthesis. The number of research articles covering new transformations of allenes is vast and the development of enantioselective reactions involving allenes has flourished in the last 10–15 years. In this review we cover three important topics in allene chemistry that we feel are timely and appropriate for this special issue celebrating the work of Prof. Trost: the metal-catalysed reactions involving chirality transfer from chiral allenes to products; the analysis of the possible racemization processes that have been observed in the interaction of some metals with allenes; and chirality transfer using racemic allenes in reactions catalysed by metal complexes bearing chiral ligands to produce enantioenriched products. We have focussed the review on intermolecular addition reactions as they are still much less explored than the intramolecular version.