Synthesis of Enantioenriched Vicinal Tertiary and Quaternary Carbon Stereogenic Centers within an Acyclic Chain

Overcoming the inherent difficulty to prepare quaternary carbon stereogenic centers, the diastereo- and enantioselective preparation of acyclic carbon backbones possessing vicinal quaternary and tertiary stereogenic centers (i.e. in a 1,2-relationship) causes distorted geometries and represents a very acute problem in organic synthesis. Several approaches are discussed in this minireview underlining the challenges illustrated by the rather limited number of approaches available to practitioners.