Soai reaction

Soai the reaction is an alkylation reaction of pyrimidine -5 -carbaldehyde with diisopropylzinc. The resulting product - a Pyrimidylalkohol - acts as an auto catalyst: When using small amounts of the same catalyst with low enantiomeric excess ( ee) is a product with high ee. Starting with a Pyrimidylalkohol, with extremely low ee of about 0.00005 %, obtained in three car catalytic cycles a product with > 99.5% ee, an increase by a factor of about 630,000.

The Japanese chemist Kenso Soai (* 1950) discovered this reaction in 1995.