New chiral anion mediated asymmetric chemistry

Chemical reactions and processes often involve chiral, yet racemic, cationic reagents, intermediates or products. To afford instead non racemic or enantiopure compounds, an asymmetric ion pairing of the cations with enantiopure anions can be considered--the counter ions behaving as asymmetric auxiliaries, ligands or reagents. Detailed herein is a short review of our approach towards gaining reliable and predictable control over stereoselective ion pairing phenomena through the synthesis and the use of novel configurationally stable hexacoordinated phosphate anions.