Catalytic Enantioselective Ring-Opening Reactions of Cyclopropanes

This review describes the development of enantioselective methods for the ring opening of cyclopropanes. Both approaches based on the reaction of nonchiral cyclopropanes and (dynamic) kinetic resolutions and asymmetric transformations of chiral substrates are presented. The review is organized according to substrate classes, starting by the more mature field of donor–acceptor cyclopropanes. Emerging methods for enantioselective ring opening of acceptor- or donor-only cyclopropanes are then presented. The last part of the review describes the ring opening of more reactive three-membered rings substituted with unsaturations with a particular focus on vinylcyclopropanes, alkylidenecyclopropanes, and vinylidenecyclopropanes. In the last two decades, the field has grown from a proof of concept stage to a broad range of methods for accessing enantioenriched building blocks, and further extensive developments can be expected in the future.