Aldehyde catalysis – from simple aldehydes to artificial enzymes

Chemists have been learning and mimicking enzymatic catalysis in various aspects of organic synthesis. One of the major goals is to develop versatile catalysts that inherit the high catalytic efficiency of enzymatic processes, while being effective for a broad scope of substrates. In this field, the study of aldehyde catalysts has achieved significant progress. This review summarizes the application of aldehydes as sustainable and effective catalysts in different reactions. The fields, in which the aldehydes successfully mimic enzymatic systems, include light energy absorption/transfer, intramolecularity introduction through tether formation, metal binding for activation/orientation and substrate activation via aldimine formation. Enantioselective aldehyde catalysis has been achieved with the development of chiral aldehyde catalysts. Direct simplification of aldehyde-dependent enzymes has also been investigated for the synthesis of noncanonical chiral amino acids. Further development in aldehyde catalysis is expected, which might also promote exploration in fields related to prebiotic chemistry, early enzyme evolution, etc.