Combinatorial libraries of chiral ligands for enantioselective catalysis

Since achieving 95% ee only involves energy difference of about 2 kcal, which is no more than the barrier encountered in a simple rotation of ethane, it is unlikely that before the fact one can predict what kind of ligand structures will be effective. With Knowles, people can look forward to the time when computational methods and mechanistic knowledge will permit the prediction of the optimum catalyst for new applications. Until that day, combinatorial methodologies will remain an invaluable tool for catalyst discovery and optimization.