Recent developments on chiral ionic liquids: design, synthesis, and applications.

The recent progress in chiral ionic liquids with respect to their syntheses and applications in enantioselective reactions and chiral recognition is described. In addition to the conventional chiral ionic liquids derived from chiral natural products, a library of novel chiral spiro compounds, including spiro bis(pyridinium) and spiro bis(imidazolium) salt, is also described. © 2008 The Japan Chemical Journal Forum and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Chem Rec 8: 98–108; 2008: Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI 10.1002/tcr.20143