Co-operative effect of Lewis acids with transition metals for organic synthesis.

Transition metal-mediated or -catalyzed carbon-carbon bond or carbon-heteroatom bond forming reactions are among the most powerful tools in organic synthesis. In addition, Lewis acid-mediated or -catalyzed organic transformations are widely used. In this context, an effective combination of these two powerful protocols or an efficient cooperation of transition metals with Lewis acids should open a new era in synthetic chemistry. This tutorial review summarizes representative synthetic methodologies developed in the past decades employing this co-operative effect.