Chiral Organometallic Catalysts in Confined Nanospaces: Significantly Enhanced Enantioselectivity and Stability

This microreview presents some selected representative examples which demonstrate that significant improvement in the catalytic performance (increase in catalytic activity, stability and chemo‐ and enantioselectivity) of organometallic chiral catalysts as well as their recycling ability can be achieved by heterogenizing them in the confined spaces of porous or layered support materials. The positive effects of immobilization on the catalytic efficiencies are discussed in terms of the confinement effect and site‐isolation effect, etc., with the aim of understanding the extent to which such effects lead to positive changes in the catalytic properties. (© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2006)