Abstract
Since its discovery a 100 years ago, Baeyer-Villiger oxidation has been widely used to transform carbonyl compounds to the corresponding esters or lactones. Until recently, however, only a few papers have appeared on asymmetric Baeyer-Villiger oxidation, while enzymatic catalytic transformation has been extensively studied and reported. Recent developments in asymmetric Baeyer-Villiger oxidation are discussed in the following such as a catalytic system of chiral Ni or Cu catalysts/O2/ RCHO and chiral Pt catalysts/H2O2 and a stoichiometric process using chiral acetals/MCPBA/SnCl4, Katsuki/Sharpless reagent and Et2Zn/O2/chiral aminoalcohols. The scope and limitations of these methods are also described.
