Spiro skeletons: a class of privileged structure for chiral ligand design.

This Focus Review highlights the exciting results obtained in the area of asymmetric catalysis using spirobiindane- or spirobifluorene-based chiral ligands. The spiro, mono, and bidentate ligands have been successfully applied in a wide range of transition-metal-catalyzed asymmetric reactions, including hydrogenations, carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom coupling reactions, with superior or comparable enantioselectivities to those obtained by using the related ligands bearing other backbones, thus proving that the spiro skeleton is a type of privileged structure for chiral ligand design. It is expected that the spiro concept for chiral ligand design will stimulate the future efforts to understand the features that account for their broad applicability and to apply this understanding to seek new privileged chiral ligands and catalysts.