Heterogeneous transition metal catalysts : enantioselective hydrogenation and dihydroxylation of the carbon carbon double bond

This account deals with two important enantioselective transfomations of prochiral carbon-carbon double bonds using insoluble transition-metal chiral systems as heterogeneous catalysts: hydrogenation and dihydroxylation of unsaturated prochiral substrates. The most useful heterogeneous enantioselective catalytic systems,employed in such reactions, able to furnish optically active products with enantiomeric excesses comparable with those obtained in homogeneous phase, have been reviewed.