Research progress on copper-catalyzed enantioselective desymmetrization of diols

Enantioselective desymmetrization of diols is an important method for the synthesis of complex enantioenriched alcohols, which has broad application prospects in medicinal chemistry, total synthesis, and materials science. In recent years, the use of copper catalysis to achieve diols' enantioselective desymmetrization has progressed rapidly because copper is inexpensive and readily available compared with other noble metal catalysts. Besides, copper undergoes a two-electron or single-electron transfer process in the catalytic cycle, and the rich oxidation states of copper provides the opportunity to solve some challenging problems. This review summarizes the research progress in this field according to the types of diols (meso diol and prochiral diol) and reactions together with a brief perspective.