Cooperative Catalysis: Designing Efficient Catalysts for Synthesis

Written by experts in the field, this is a much–needed overview of the rapidly emerging field of cooperative catalysis. The authors focus on the design and development of novel high–performance catalysts for applications in organic synthesis (particularly asymmetric synthesis), covering a broad range of topics, from the latest progress in Lewis acid / Br?nsted base catalysis to e.g. metal–assisted organocatalysis, cooperative metal/enzyme catalysis, and cooperative catalysis in polymerization reactions and on solid surfaces. The chapters are classified according to the type of cooperating activating groups, and describe in detail the different strategies of cooperative activation, highlighting their respective advantages and pitfalls. As a result, readers will learn about the different concepts of cooperative catalysis, their corresponding modes of operation and their applications, thus helping to find a solution to a specific synthetic catalysis problem.


1) Lewis Acid –
Br?nsted Base Catalysis
2) Lewis Acid –
Lewis Base Catalysis
3) Cooperating Ligands in Catalysis
4) Cooperative Enamine –
Lewis Acid Catalysis
5) Hydrogen Bonding–Mediated Cooperative Organocatalysis by Modified Cinchona Alkaloids
6) Cooperation of Transition Metals and Chiral Br?nsted Acids in Asymmetric Catalysis
7) Cooperative Catalysis Involving Chiral Ion Pair Catalysts
8) Bimetallic Catalysis: Cooperation of Carbophilic Metal Centers
9) Cooperative H2 Activation by Borane–Derived Frustrated Lewis Pairs
10) Catalysis by Artificial Oligopeptides
11) Metals and Metal Complexes in Cooperative Catalysis with Enzymes within Organic–Synthetic One–Pot Processes
12) Cooperative Catalysis on Solid Surfaces versus Soluble Molecules
13) Cooperative Catalysis in Polymerization Reactions


René Peters is professor for Organic Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. He studied chemistry at the RWTH Aachen (Germany) and received his doctoral degree in 2000 under supervision of Prof. Dieter Enders. For his postdoctoral studies he joined the group of Prof. Yoshito Kishi at Harvard University, USA. Afterwards, he worked for three years as a process research chemist at F. Hoffmann–La Roche in Basel, Switzerland. In 2004, he joined the faculty of ETH Zürich as assistant professor and since 2008 he holds his current position. His research efforts are mainly directed towards the development of efficient catalytic asymmetric methodologies, in particular using cooperative catalysis.