Recent developments in highly efficient construction of P-stereogenic centers

The construction of chiral phosphorus molecules with asymmetric center on the phosphorus atom has always been considered to be challenging in synthetic chemistry. Such P-stereogenic compounds possess many unique properties allowing many potential applications in natural products synthesis, pharmaceuticals as well as ligands in asymmetric organometallic catalysis. This increasing importance of P-stereogenic compounds has driven chemists to develop sophisticated strategies over the years to construct chiral phosphorus compounds. In this review, we aim to discuss the methodologies for the construction of P-stereogenic centers that were developed from 2005 to 2020. The review has been organized into seven sections according to their respective reaction principles beginning with desymmetrization, followed by phosphonoalkylation and phosphonoarylation, asymmetric addition, deprotonation, ring-closing metathesis, the use of organolithiums and Grignard reagents together with chiral auxiliaries and ending with kinetic resolution.