Tandem catalysis is a growing field that is beginning to yield important scientific and technological advances toward new and more efficient catalytic processes. 'One-pot' tandem reactions, where multiple catalysts and reagents, combined in a single reaction vessel undergo a sequence of precisely staged catalytic steps, are highly attractive from the standpoint of reducing both waste and time. Orthogonal tandem catalysis is a subset of one-pot reactions in which more than one catalyst is used to promote two or more mechanistically distinct reaction steps. This Perspective summarizes and analyses some of the recent developments and successes in orthogonal tandem catalysis, with particular focus on recent strategies to address catalyst incompatibility. We also highlight the concept of thermodynamic leveraging by coupling multiple catalyst cycles to effect challenging transformations not observed in single-step processes, and to encourage application of this technique to energetically unfavourable or demanding reactions.

串联催化是一个正在发展的领域，它开始朝着新的和更有效的催化过程产生重要的科学技术进步。从减少浪费和时间的角度来看，“一锅”串联反应是一种极具吸引力的方法，其中多个催化剂和试剂在一个反应​​容器中结合进行一系列精确分级的催化步骤。正交串联催化是一锅法反应的子集，其中一个以上的催化剂用于促进两个或多个机械上截然不同的反应步骤。本《观点》概述并分析了正交串联催化的一些最新进展和成功经验，尤其着重于解决催化剂不相容性的最新策略。