Planar Chiral Ferrocenes: A Concise Introduction

Due to its intrinsic beauty and unique properties, bis(η5-cyclopentadienyl)iron or ferrocene continues to attract the attention of chemists even after seven decades from its discovery. One of the particularly attractive and active fields is the preparation of planar-chiral ferrocene derivatives, which found manifold use as auxiliary ligands in enantioselective transition metal catalysis and organocatalysis. This chapter briefly illustrates the historical context and recent trends in this area, paying particular attention to the development of synthetic routes leading to planar-chiral ferrocenes.