Recent Advances in Enantioselective Photochemical Reactions of Stabilized Diazo Compounds

Diazo compounds have proven to be a useful class of carbenes or metal carbenoids sources under thermal, photochemical, or metal-catalyzed conditions, which can subsequently undergo a wide range of synthetically important transformations. Recently, asymmetric photocatalysis has provoked increasing research interests, and great advances have been made in this discipline towards the synthesis of optically enriched compounds. In this context, the past two decades have been the most productive period in the developments of enantioselective photochemical reactions of diazo compounds due to a better understanding of the reactivities of diazo compounds and the emergence of new catalytic modes, as well as easier access to and treatment of stabilized diazo compounds. This review highlights these impressive achievements according to the reaction type, and the general mechanisms and stereochemical inductions are briefly discussed as well.