Organocapture

When small organic molecules, rather than transition metal complexes, enzymes or mere acids/bases, catalyze a reaction, the term "organocatalysis" is used. Sometimes the "catalyst" increases the yield of a reaction without accelerating the reaction leading to the desired product by reducing the rate of competing reactions more than that of the desired reaction. When this happens and a covalent intermediate is involved, the term "organocapture" may be used.

References

Organocatalysis

[1] B. List, R. A. Lerner, C. F. Barbas III. Proline-catalyzed direct asymmetric aldol reactions. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2000, 122, 2395–2396. https://doi.org/10.1021/ja994280y

[2] D. W. C. MacMillan, The advent and development of organocatalysis. Nature 2008, 455, 304–308. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07367

Reference Organocapture

[3] P. Tremmel, H. Griesser, U. E. Steiner, C. Richert, How small heterocycles make a reaction network of amino acids and nucleotides efficient in water. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58, 13087-13092. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201905427