Recent Advances in Catalytic Nonenzymatic Kinetic Resolution of Tertiary Alcohols

The kinetic resolution (KR) of racemates is one of the most widely used approaches to access enantiomerically pure compounds. Over the past two decades, catalytic nonenzymatic KR has gained popularity in the field of asymmetric synthesis due to the rapid development of chiral catalysts and ligands in asymmetric catalysis. Chiral tertiary alcohols are prevalent in a variety of natural products, pharmaceuticals, and biologically active chiral compounds. The catalytic nonenzymatic KR of racemic tertiary alcohols is a straightforward strategy to access enantioenriched tertiary alcohols. This short review describes recent advances in catalytic nonenzymatic KR of tertiary alcohols, including organocatalysis and metal catalysis.