Formaldehyde surrogates in multicomponent reactions

• Cecilia I. Attorresi,
• Javier A. Ramírez and
• Bernhard Westermann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 564–595, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.45

• carbon atom, due to the readiness for losing a water molecule. Formaldehyde is commonly used in its polymeric form (paraformaldehyde) or in a 37% aqueous solution (formalin). The exceptional solubility of formaldehyde in water or biobased solvents, such as ethanol and glycerol, enhances the feasibility

• ]. They argued that organic bases such as DBU are superior than inorganic bases in improving the yields, probably because of the low solubility of the last ones in the reaction system. In the same way, other bases such as DABCO [64], DBU [66], and TMG (1,1,3,3-tetramethylguanidine) [65][67] were shown to

• well for a wide variety of solvents and under mild basic conditions, since the solubility of the reagents and ease of product isolation are the factors that govern the choice. Sisko et al. used DMF/K2CO3 as the best conditions to carry out the cycloaddition of a wide variety of amines, aldehydes, and

Study of the interaction of 2H-furo[3,2-b]pyran-2-ones with nitrogen-containing nucleophiles

• Constantine V. Milyutin,
• Andrey N. Komogortsev and
• Boris V. Lichitsky

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 556–563, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.44

• conditions and the obtained results are summarized in Table 1. It should be mentioned that all experiments were carried out at reflux due to low solubility of the starting compound 1a in all used solvents. At first, we carried out the process under conditions developed above for the synthesis of enamines 4

Synthesis of N-acetyl diazocine derivatives via cross-coupling reaction

• Thomas Brandt,
• Pascal Lentes,
• Jeremy Rudtke,
• Michael Hösgen,
• Christian Näther and
• Rainer Herges

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 490–499, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.36

• azobenzene is that the switching efficiency decreases sharply with increasing water content in the solvent. In a recently published paper, we reported that replacing one CH2 group in the bridge with NCOCH3 not only confers intrinsic water solubility, but also largely eliminates the problem of reduced

• ]. Moreover, the parent diazocine is insoluble in water (precipitation in water/DMSO > 9:1). Substitution with polar substituents such as CH2NH2 provides water solubility, however, it does not restore the high Z → E conversion rates of the parent system in organic solvents, which is a disadvantage, since

• biochemical reactions usually take place in aqueous environments [13]. The substitution of one CH2 group in the CH2CH2 bridge by N–C(=O)–CH3 leads to an intrinsic water solubility of the N-acetyl diazocine 1 (Figure 1) [3]. Furthermore the photoconversion of 1 shows no significant drop in pure water in

Synthesis of electrophile-tethered preQ₁ analogs for covalent attachment to preQ₁ RNA

• Laurin Flemmich and
• Ronald Micura

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 483–489, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.35

• derivatives have been reported [22][23][24][25][26]. Among these reports, various silylation and protection strategies have been employed to address the poor solubility of preQ1 (and analogs) in organic solvents [9][22][23][25][26][27][28][29]. Herein, we report an optimized three-step protocol, free of

• -step synthesis of O6-methyl preQ1 (16, m6preQ1) [28]. The direct reduction of the precursor O6-methyl preQ0 (15, m6preQ0) was possible, eliminating the need for the previously introduced protection/solubility concept, which shortened the synthetic route to only four steps (Supporting Information File 1

Photomechanochemistry: harnessing mechanical forces to enhance photochemical reactions

• Francesco Mele,
• Ana M. Constantin,
• Andrea Porcheddu,
• Raimondo Maggi,
• Giovanni Maestri,
• Nicola Della Ca’ and
• Luca Capaldo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 458–472, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.33

• simplifies experimental procedures. Moreover, it often leads to shorter reaction times [43][44] and can overcome solubility limitations [45]. Similar to the effect of photons in light-mediated synthesis, mechanical forces generated during ball milling can induce unconventional reaction pathways [46] enabling

Beyond symmetric self-assembly and effective molarity: unlocking functional enzyme mimics with robust organic cages

• Keith G. Andrews

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 421–443, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.30

• self-directing and self-correcting, and the term “self-assembly” [290][291][292] often used [286][293][294][295][296]. Products can be thermodynamic or kinetic, but are often isolated by precipitation due to low solubility [297], though many have useful solubility [288][298]. Since POCs typically have

• the past few years [20][70][235][315], and true organocatalysis is exceedingly rare [316]. Instead, catalytic systems tend to be composed of cavities that increase substrate solubility [317], or host nanoparticles [318][319][320][321][322][323][324][325][326], metals [44][327][328], photoactive groups

• , which can act as an oxidation catalyst (Figure 7C) [44]. The long-standing challenges of synthesis, stability, solubility and internal functionalization are beginning to be tackled, and the remainder of this Perspective will discuss specifics of these hard-earned advances and the opportunities they

Synthesis, structure, ionochromic and cytotoxic properties of new 2-(indolin-2-yl)-1,3-tropolones

• Yurii A. Sayapin,
• Eugeny A. Gusakov,
• Inna O. Tupaeva,
• Alexander D. Dubonosov,
• Igor V. Dorogan,
• Valery V. Tkachev,
• Anna S. Goncharova,
• Gennady V. Shilov,
• Natalia S. Kuznetsova,
• Svetlana Y. Filippova,
• Tatyana A. Krasnikova,
• Yanis A. Boumber,
• Alexey Y. Maksimov,
• Sergey M. Aldoshin and
• Vladimir I. Minkin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 358–368, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.26

• represent molecular switches of optical and fluorescent properties under sequential addition of CN− and Hg2+ ions and the transformation cycle presented in Scheme 3 can be repeated at least 5–6 times. The resulting compounds 7b and 8a,b have extremely low water solubility, which makes it impossible to

• prepare concentrations sufficient for studying cellular cytotoxicity. In this regard, 1,3-tropolone 7a, which has an acceptable level of solubility in water, was used for biological testing. The in vitro cytotoxic activity was investigated with A431 skin cancer and H1299 lung cancer cell lines. A standard

Synthesis of disulfides and 3-sulfenylchromones from sodium sulfinates catalyzed by TBAI

• Zhenlei Zhang,
• Ying Wang,
• Xingxing Pan,
• Manqi Zhang,
• Wei Zhao,
• Meng Li and
• Hao Zhang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 253–261, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.17

• been further decreased, in the end, 0.5 mL of DMF was used because of the solubility of the reagents. Increasing the amount of catalyst to 20 mol % resulted in a significant increase in the yield, but further increases did not significantly change the yield (Table 1, entries 14 and 15). A decrease in

Quantifying the ability of the CF₂H group as a hydrogen bond donor

• Matthew E. Paolella,
• Daniel S. Honeycutt,
• Bradley M. Lipka,
• Jacob M. Goldberg and
• Fang Wang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 189–199, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.11

• bond donors. Our experiment with neutral HB donors reproduced literature results (Table 1, compounds 10, 11, and 12) [20][22][47] and revealed an expected trend in HB donation ability; for example, compound 1a is a weaker HB donor than 3a. However, due to limited solubility, the 1H NMR spectroscopic

• 1H NMR chemical shift change, thereby allowing the interactions of individual HB donating moieties with n-Bu3PO to be probed (Figure 4B and C). Moreover, we used anhydrous deuterated acetonitrile (CD3CN) as the solvent, in which both neutral and ionic compounds exhibited appreciable solubility. In

Nickel-catalyzed cross-coupling of 2-fluorobenzofurans with arylboronic acids via aromatic C–F bond activation

• Takeshi Fujita,
• Haruna Yabuki,
• Ryutaro Morioka,
• Kohei Fuchibe and
• Junji Ichikawa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 146–154, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.8

• optimized the coupling reaction using potassium phosphate as a base and increasing the nickel catalyst loading to 20 mol %, achieving a yield of 78% for the desired product 3bg. When 2-naphthylboronic acid (2i) was employed, its solubility was enhanced using a mixed solvent system of toluene, methanol, and

Facile one-pot reduction of β-nitrostyrenes to phenethylamines using sodium borohydride and copper(II) chloride

• Laura D’Andrea and
• Simon Jademyr

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 39–46, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.4

• -consuming. Additionally, the effect of the addition order of the reagents was evaluated, and the results are also provided in Supporting Information File 1. Furthermore, methanol, 2-propanol, and water were independently tested as reaction solvents. Solubility issues, which lead to the formation of dense

• suspensions and precipitation of the starting materials, make these solvents unsuitable for this reaction and the isolation of the products troublesome. The use of 2-propanol/water (2:1), together with the application of heat, ensures optimal solubility of the species involved. Moreover, the workup procedure

Reactivity of hypervalent iodine(III) reagents bearing a benzylamine with sulfenate salts

• Beatriz Dedeiras,
• Catarina S. Caldeira,
• José C. Cunha,
• Clara S. B. Gomes and
• M. Manuel B. Marques

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3281–3289, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.272

• reaction (Table 1, entry 1) [4]. In the presence of potassium carbonate, only starting material 4a was detected. A stronger base to generate the nucleophilic intermediate was tested, and sulfonamide 5aa was detected in trace amounts (Table 1, entry 2). Considering the low solubility of the hypervalent

Multicomponent reactions driving the discovery and optimization of agents targeting central nervous system pathologies

• Lucía Campos-Prieto,
• Aitor García-Rey,
• Eddy Sotelo and
• Ana Mallo-Abreu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3151–3173, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.261

• activity towards AβpE3-42 but accomplishing increased solubility. Due to the multifactorial pathogenesis of AD, one of the current drug discovery approaches is the so-called multitarget-directed ligands (MTDLs). In 2015, Benchekroun et al. [38] reported the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of a

Advances in the use of metal-free tetrapyrrolic macrocycles as catalysts

• Mandeep K. Chahal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3085–3112, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.257

• activates the Cu–Cl bond via chloride···calixpyrrole (N–H···Cl) hydrogen-bonding interactions toward the formation of the nitrene intermediate from chloramine-T (NaCl=NTs). Additionally, calix[4]pyrrole served as a phase-transfer catalyst in this reaction. Since chloramine-T had low solubility in

• acetonitrile, calix[4]pyrrole enhanced its solubility, contributing to its indirect activation. Various control experiments, such as using CuI with and without calix[4]pyrrole and using dipyrromethane as another potential co-catalyst, have confirmed the role of calix[4]pyrrole as a promoter. Recently

Extension of the π-system of monoaryl-substituted norbornadienes with acetylene bridges: influence on the photochemical conversion and storage of light energy

• Robin Schulte,
• Dustin Schade,
• Thomas Paululat,
• Till J. B. Zähringer,
• Christoph Kerzig and
• Heiko Ihmels

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3061–3068, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.254

• acetylenes at ca. 85 ppm and 95 ppm were observed. The norbornadienes 1h–l,n exhibit very good solubility in organic solvents, like ethyl acetate, chloroform, or benzene, whereas they have poor solubility in cyclohexane, acetonitrile, or ethanol. In polar protic solvents, like methanol or water, they are

• reactions of 1i and 1l (20 µM) were investigated in the presence of [Ru(phen)3](PF6)2 (20 µM) at λex = 520 nm in acetonitrile (Scheme 4). This solvent was required because of the solubility of the sensitizer. Under these conditions, both derivatives 1i and 1l showed the same development of absorption

• be investigated in the presence of the photosensitizer because these substrates have no sufficient solubility in acetonitrile. To assess the efficiency of the photoreactions, photoisomerization quantum yields were determined in cyclohexane by actinometry (λex = 310 nm or 340 nm) [41][42]. The quantum

Cyclodextrin-based rotaxanes for polymer materials: challenge on simultaneous realization of inexpensive production and defined structures

• Yosuke Akae

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3026–3049, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.252

• ]rotaxane 11 (Figure 12). In this synthesis, the hydroxy groups on CDs were completely acetylated to facilitate ROP only from the axle-end diol moieties and increase the solubility of [3]rotaxane. Further, subjecting the polymer to heat treatment induced the deslipping of CDs from the central alkyl chain on

The charge transport properties of dicyanomethylene-functionalised violanthrone derivatives

• Sondos A. J. Almahmoud,
• Joseph Cameron,
• Dylan Wilkinson,
• Michele Cariello,
• Claire Wilson,
• Alan A. Wiles,
• Peter J. Skabara and
• Graeme Cooke

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2921–2930, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.244

• properties. Due to the low solubility of violanthrone in the majority of organic solvents, special attention has been drawn to its dihydroxy derivative (Figure 1), which allows further modification to the materials via etherification or esterification [29][30]. There has been a report on the structural

• mobilities (μh) of 3b and 3c are calculated as 1.07 × 10−2 and 1.21 × 10−3 cm2 V−1s−1, respectively. However, the hole mobility of 3a is only 3.62 × 10−6 cm2 V−1 s−1. Side chain engineering is crucial for OFET performance since it plays an important role in determining solubility, molecular packing, polarity

Recent advances in transition-metal-free arylation reactions involving hypervalent iodine salts

• Ritu Mamgain,
• Kokila Sakthivel and
• Fateh V. Singh

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2891–2920, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.243

• nature of X− [45][46]. Anions like tetrafluoroborate, hexafluorophosphate, and trifluoromethanesulfate are commonly used in DAIS due to their good solubility and weak nucleophilicity. If the two aryl groups (Ar1 and Ar2) in DAIS are different, they are termed unsymmetric diaryliodonium salts 3. The

• when a minimal quantity of water was used as a solvent in the presence of a base. The ball-milling method efficiently simplified the reaction process because, in contrast to typical solution methods, it may realize product formation without being affected by the solubility of the substrate and other

N-Glycosides of indigo, indirubin, and isoindigo: blue, red, and yellow sugars and their cancerostatic activity

• Peter Langer

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2840–2869, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.240

• represent promising candidates for drug discovery, because of their improved water solubility, membrane permeability, and improved recognition by the respective receptors [16]. The present article aims to provide an updated review of the chemistry and biological applications of N-glycosides of indigo

• -rhamnosides α-17a and α-17c, respectively (Scheme 14) [23]. Water solubility plays an important role with regard to the pharmacological activity. It was previously shown that the water solubility and anticancer activity of non-glycosylated indirubins can be improved by conversion of the keto to an oxime group

• -glycosylated indirubins act as a ligand for the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) and also directly inhibit several cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK). A problem is generally the low water solubility of these compounds. The commercially available indirubin-3’-monoxime (34) shows a better solubility, due to the

Investigation of a bimetallic terbium(III)/copper(II) chemosensor for the detection of aqueous hydrogen sulfide

• Parvathy Mini,
• Michael R. Grace,
• Genevieve H. Dennison and
• Kellie L. Tuck

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2818–2826, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.237

• − in the aqueous state at a pH of 7.4 due to its weak acidic nature and high solubility in water (80 mM at 37 °C) [6]. Elevated levels of H2S in groundwater pose high risks to both human health and aquatic ecosystems [7], compelling rigorous monitoring of water sources. Even though sensors for

• aqueous hydrogen sulfide and 100 ppb for gaseous hydrogen sulfide [16]. However, due to the limited aqueous solubility and ligand dissociation of this chemosensor, and to the weakly luminescent bis species at usable concentrations, we extended this work to the lanthanide–macrocycle binary complexes [Ln

• -DPA)3]3−, Tb.1 exhibited limited solubility in water, becoming insoluble at concentrations exceeding 100 μM. Therefore, a 1 mM stock solution of Tb.1 was prepared in DMSO, with the final concentration of DMSO in analytical solutions kept at ≤5%. Initial luminescence analysis of a 5 μM solution of Tb.1

Synthesis and antimycotic activity of new derivatives of imidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidines

• Dmitriy Yu. Vandyshev,
• Daria A. Mangusheva,
• Khidmet S. Shikhaliev,
• Kirill A. Scherbakov,
• Oleg N. Burov,
• Alexander D. Zagrebaev,
• Tatiana N. Khmelevskaya,
• Alexey S. Trenin and
• Fedor I. Zubkov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2806–2817, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.236

• on the analysis of existing data [28], taking into account experimentally obtained data on the solubility of the starting reagents. The tested solvents were dioxane, PhMe, MeOH, EtOH, iPrOH, MeCN, and DMF (dimethylformamide). Sodium acetate as an additive was necessary for converting 2-aminoimidazole

The scent gland composition of the Mangshan pit viper, Protobothrops mangshanensis

• Jonas Holste,
• Paul Weldon,
• Donald Boyer and
• Stefan Schulz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2644–2654, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.222

• bicolor [8]. These ethers are also found in the scent glands of other reptiles such as lizards [40] and probably act as detergents to increase the solubility of apolar lipids. Amides have been found in Dumeril's Boa and the western diamondback rattlesnake, among others [5][11]. The secretion has also been

Deciphering the mechanism of γ-cyclodextrin’s hydrophobic cavity hydration: an integrated experimental and theoretical study

• Stiliyana Pereva,
• Stefan Dobrev,
• Tsveta Sarafska,
• Valya Nikolova,
• Silvia Angelova,
• Tony Spassov and
• Todor Dudev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2635–2643, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.221

• increased solubility of the entrapped molecules, led to the wide range of applications in the pharmaceutical, food, cosmetic, agricultural, and other industries. It is well established that in the absence of other candidates, water molecules fill the CDs void [6][7][8][9][10]. The number and geometric

Applications of microscopy and small angle scattering techniques for the characterisation of supramolecular gels

• Connor R. M. MacDonald and
• Emily R. Draper

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2608–2634, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.220

• crystallise and disrupt the network, or change the stability and solubility of any charged structures present. All of these issues could result in statistics which are not representative of the structures in situ [31]. To overcome this, cryogenic techniques are widely used to allow the investigation of a

Transition-metal-free synthesis of arylboronates via thermal generation of aryl radicals from triarylbismuthines in air

• Yuki Yamamoto,
• Yuki Konakazawa,
• Kohsuke Fujiwara and
• Akiya Ogawa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2577–2584, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.216

• ). We first investigated the solubility of 1 and 2 in various solvents. It was found that both 1 and 2 showed excellent solubility towards benzotrifluoride (BTF) [61] (for diboron 2: 637 mg/mL (BTF); 567 mg/mL (AcOEt)). Therefore, BTF is chosen as the solvent. Surprisingly, heating the mixture of 1 and

• arylboronates. For example, the use of triarylbismuthines with o-methyl, m-methyl, p-methyl, p-methoxy, and p-chloro groups successfully afforded the corresponding arylboronates 3a–e and 3g in 62–73% yields, respectively. The low solubility of tri(p-fluorophenyl) and tri(1-naphthyl)bismuthines 1h and 1k in BTF