Enantioselective radical chemistry: a bright future ahead

• Anna C. Renner,
• Sagar S. Thorat,
• Hariharaputhiran Subramanian and
• Mukund P. Sibi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2283–2296, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.174

• include the use of transition metals or photoredox catalysts. In photoredox catalysis, radical generation often involves single-electron transfer (SET) to or from a photoexcited state of a photoredox catalyst, usually a metal complex or organic molecule. Two other notable strategies for radical generation

• obviating the need for both enantiomers of the ligand. Although chiral Lewis acid-mediated radical reactions were groundbreaking, they suffered from major disadvantages: (a) high catalyst loadings (stoichiometric or sub-stoichiometric), (b) large amounts of the radical initiator, (c) the need for a large

• applied in the development of enantioselective polyene cyclizations, which demonstrated the power of the catalytic strategy. In the presence of a chiral amine catalyst 16 (Scheme 3) and the mild oxidant Cu(OTf)2, polyenes with a terminal aldehyde group underwent intramolecular cyclizations affording

Pathway economy in cyclization of 1,n-enynes

• Hezhen Han,
• Wenjie Mao,
• Bin Lin,
• Maosheng Cheng,
• Lu Yang and
• Yongxiang Liu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2260–2282, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.173

• systematically regulating reaction parameters (solvent, substituent, ligand, catalyst) in 1,n-enyne cyclizations, enabling efficient "one-to-many" transformations that drastically reduce synthetic steps and resource consumption. Review Solvent-controlled cyclization of 1,n-enynes Solvents play a multifaceted

• solvent-controlled selective syntheses of two polycyclic compounds (Scheme 6) [13]. Using PdCl2 as the catalyst and DMF as the solvent, substrate 22 underwent a 6-endo-dig cyclization and subsequent enone insertion, forming a palladium–carbon bond intermediate. Protonolysis yielded isocoumarin-fused

• afforded selective access to four indole derivatives through modulation of the alkyne's terminal substituents and nucleophile type (Scheme 14) [21][22]. The gold(I) catalyst activated the unsubstituted terminal alkynes to initiate a 5-exo-dig cyclization, generating a spiro[indoline-3,3'-pyrrolidine

Thiadiazino-indole, thiadiazino-carbazole and benzothiadiazino-carbazole dioxides: synthesis, physicochemical and early ADME characterization of representatives of new tri-, tetra- and pentacyclic ring systems and their intermediates

• Gyöngyvér Pusztai,
• László Poszávácz,
• Anna Vincze,
• András Marton,
• Ahmed Qasim Abdulhussein,
• Judit Halász,
• András Dancsó,
• Gyula Simig,
• György Tibor Balogh and
• Balázs Volk

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2220–2233, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.169

• synthesis [18][19][20][21]. Sudhakara et al. described the advantages of using bismuth nitrate as catalyst in the synthesis of hydrazones and in the one-pot Fischer synthesis of indoles from ketones and hydrazines [22][23]. Adopting this method, hydrazone intermediates 7a–j were obtained by treatment of

• hydrazino derivatives 5a,b with ketones 6a–e in the presence of bismuth nitrate pentahydrate catalyst in refluxing methanol with good to excellent yields (method A, step 1). As regards cis–trans isomerism, compounds (E)-7a and (E)-7f were isolated in high yields (94% and 84%, respectively), however, in the

• were previously used for the synthesis of 7-nitroindole derivatives: heating in polyphosphoric acid (PPA) at 80 °C [24][25]. However, our attempt was not successful. Experiments with zinc chloride, the most commonly used Lewis acid catalyst in Fischer indole syntheses, also failed under various

Synthesis of triazolo- and tetrazolo-fused 1,4-benzodiazepines via one-pot Ugi–azide and Cu-free click reactions

• Xiaoming Ma,
• Zijie Gao,
• Jiawei Niu,
• Wentao Shao,
• Shenghu Yan,
• Sai Zhang and
• Wei Zhang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2202–2210, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.167

• access triazole-fused and tetrazole-tethered benzodiazepines 7 via Ugi–azide/intramolecular click reaction under Cu-catalyst-free conditions. The 4-CR Ugi–azide reaction was modified to be a one-pot two-step reaction process to address functional group compatibility issues. By using 2-isocyanoacetate

Electrochemical cyclization of alkynes to construct five-membered nitrogen-heterocyclic rings

• Lifen Peng,
• Ting Wang,
• Zhiwen Yuan,
• Bin Li,
• Zilong Tang,
• Xirong Liu,
• Hui Li,
• Guofang Jiang,
• Chunling Zeng,
• Henry N. C. Wong and
• Xiao-Shui Peng

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2173–2201, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.166

• ]. Besides, electrochemical cyclization of alkynes is also an important access towards indoles. In 2016, Xu reported the electrochemical intramolecular coupling of urea derivatives to form substituted indoles (Scheme 1) [162]. Using [Cp2Fe] (5 mol %) as the redox catalyst, the intramolecular coupling of

• -metal catalyst and oxidant, was an economic and efficient protocol compared with the previous method [174][175][176][177][178][179][180][181][182][183][184]. The ruthenium-accelerated electrochemical dehydrogenative annulation of alkyne with an aniline derivative was also an efficient method to build

• for 6 h. The authors also proposed the reaction mechanism on basis of experimental results and previous literature [205][206]. Firstly, the ligand exchange between (R)-Rh1 and n-Bu4NOAc or 1-AdCO2H gave a chiral active catalyst A. The irreversible base-prompted C–H activation of A with 19a yielded a

C2 to C6 biobased carbonyl platforms for fine chemistry

• Jingjing Jiang,
• Muhammad Noman Haider Tariq,
• Florence Popowycz,
• Yanlong Gu and
• Yves Queneau

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2103–2172, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.165

• solvent and Pd as catalyst played a vital role for achieving a high yield. Efficient subsequent esterification and quaternarization to diesterquat fabric softeners demonstrated that high-value chemicals could be produced fully biobased from GCA as the starting platform (Scheme 2). GCA can also be used as

• a C1 building block for the N-formylation of secondary amines to formamides under catalyst-free conditions and air as oxidant. This method was applied to different aromatic and aliphatic (both cyclic and acyclic) amines (Scheme 3) [31]. Already in 1955, Parham and Reiff reported the synthesis and

• electrocatalyst supported on nitrogen-doped carbon nanosheets (Cu/NCNSs). This catalyst exhibits high activity for the oxidation of various substrates, including GLY, gluconic acid (GLU), 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), benzyl alcohol (BA), furfuryl alcohol (FA), and ethylene glycol (EG) (Scheme 7) [35]. Park et

The application of desymmetric enantioselective reduction of cyclic 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds in the total synthesis of terpenoid and alkaloid natural products

• Dong-Xing Tan and
• Fu-She Han

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2085–2102, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.164

• reduction of diketone 28 for preparing alcohol 30 under the CBS conditions [8] with (S)-29 as the catalyst (Scheme 1) [14]. Notably, this reaction could be performed on multiple gram scales with satisfactory yield (72%) and ee value (92%). Protection of the alcohol group in 30 with TBSCl followed by

• and transformations of 43 produced hydroxyketone 44. Due to the steric hindrance of this substrate, the subsequent Suzuki cross coupling reaction with 3-boronophenol proceeded in low yield. To address this issue, Han′s group employed a novel palladacycle catalyst 45, previously developed by their

• ], the enzyme-catalyzed desymmetric enantioselective reduction of 28, afforded hydroxyketone 54 in 65% yield with >99% ee and 8–9:1 dr on multigram scale [34]. Functional group transformations of 54 in four steps produced sterically hindered allyl triflate 55. By employing the palladacycle catalyst 45

Measuring the stereogenic remoteness in non-central chirality: a stereocontrol connectivity index for asymmetric reactions

• Ivan Keng Wee On,
• Yu Kun Choo,
• Sambhav Baid and
• Ye Zhu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1995–2006, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.155

• , planar chirality, and “inherent chirality” are illustrated using the stereocontrol connectivity index produced following a unified 3-step process. Application of such stereochemical classification could facilitate the development of new synthetic methodologies and catalyst systems to construct diverse

• substituents. Intuitively, the intrinsic spatial separation among prochiral stereogenic elements, the reactive sites, and the stereochemical-defining substituents makes stereoinduction for non-central chirality using a chiral catalyst or reagent particularly challenging. However, a quantitative

• –B [14] (Scheme 3E) bonds. In the case of an asymmetric cross-coupling reaction (Scheme 3C) [10], both sets of the substituents on individual aryl groups are considered because neither is involved in the bond formation/cleavage. Accordingly, the catalyst-controlled atroposelective Suzuki–Miyaura

Aryl iodane-induced cascade arylation–1,2-silyl shift–heterocyclization of propargylsilanes under copper catalysis

• Rasma Kroņkalne,
• Rūdolfs Beļaunieks,
• Armands Sebris,
• Anatoly Mishnev and
• Māris Turks

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1984–1994, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.154

• techniques, indicating that the observed arylation–cyclization cascade reaction is highly stereospecific. With this result in hand, we performed copper catalyst screening (Table 3). We observed that CuCl and the CuOTf benzene complex gave similarly good yields (82–84% by NMR, Table 3, entries 2 and 4), while

• the CuBF4 acetonitrile complex was the next best choice (77% by NMR, Table 3, entry 5). Heterogenous catalysis using Cu2O gave a mixture of the arylated product 8a and protodecupration side-product 12, both in poor yields (Table 3, entry 6). Increased catalyst loading (11 mol % of [CuOTf]2∙PhH

• ) resulted in the formation of more side products (Table 3, entry 9), and we therefore decided to proceed with 5 mol % of the catalyst for the substrate scope. We also observed that, in the absence of base, even at room temperature, only the protodecupration product 12 was obtained (with up to 69% NMR yield

Photochemical reduction of acylimidazolium salts

• Michael Jakob,
• Nick Bechler,
• Hassan Abdelwahab,
• Fabian Weber,
• Janos Wasternack,
• Leonardo Kleebauer,
• Jan P. Götze and
• Matthew N. Hopkinson

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1973–1983, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.153

• transition-metal complexes such as the Grubbs’ second-generation metathesis catalyst, NHCs are now also well-established as organocatalysts. With the first application pre-dating the unambiguous characterization of a free NHC by nearly 50 years, NHCs can facilitate numerous synthetically attractive

• represents an actual chemical yield of 30%. While seemingly less efficient than the photoredox process, the successful generation of reduced species in the absence of the catalyst is a remarkable result that highlights the unique influence of the NHC fragment on the reduction potentials and photoreactivity

Asymmetric total synthesis of tricyclic prostaglandin D2 metabolite methyl ester via oxidative radical cyclization

• Miao Xiao,
• Liuyang Pu,
• Qiaoli Shang,
• Lei Zhu and
• Jun Huang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1964–1972, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.152

• -metathesis reaction smoothly in the presence of the Hoveyda–Grubbs second-generation catalyst to afford the enone 13 in 63% yield with the desired trans-configuration. Enone 13 was then subjected to the Pd/C-catalyzed hydrogenation to give the thermodynamically favored bicyclic hemiketal 21 in 92% yield as

• intermediate 22 (see Supporting Information File 1 for the details). Reasoning that the preferential coordination of the palladium catalyst with the hydroxy group at C15 and the carbonyl group at C18 in compound 22 may have deactivated the palladium catalyst [34], we protected the hydroxy group. Compound 22

• controlled by the stereoelectronic effect of the axial hydroxy group at C11 (Scheme 4) [28]. First, β-keto ester 21 was synthesized (Scheme 5). Cross-metathesis of allylic alcohol 18 and olefin 28 with the assistance of the Hoveyda–Grubbs second-generation catalyst delivered the desired product 27 in 68

Enantioselective desymmetrization strategy of prochiral 1,3-diols in natural product synthesis

• Lihua Wei,
• Rui Yang,
• Zhifeng Shi and
• Zhiqiang Ma

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1932–1963, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.151

• . PPL-catalyzed desymmetrization of 10 with vinyl acetate yielded monoacetate (R)-11 in 41% yield (94% brsm) with 78% ee. Diene 12 was prepared from (R)-11 via a ten-step sequence. The following ring-closing metathesis (RCM) reaction catalyzed by Grubbs catalyst 13 converted 12 into the bicyclic

• . Alcohol 28 was obtained from 27 in two steps, and was subsequently converted to hyperione A (30) and ent-hyperione B (31) by refluxing in toluene with Shvo’s catalyst 29. Notably, the authors found that hyperione A (30) could be obtained in higher yield and enantiopurity from alcohol 28 via a two-step

• enantioselective acylation of glycerol derivatives [53]. Since then, desymmetrization strategies for prochiral 1,3-diols involving transition-metal-catalyzed acylation have been developed. Trost and co-workers then developed a Zn-based catalyst for asymmetric aldol reactions [54][55], later adapting it to the

Rhodium-catalysed connective synthesis of diverse reactive probes bearing S(VI) electrophilic warheads

• Scott Rice,
• Julian Chesti,
• William R. T. Mosedale,
• Megan H. Wright,
• Stephen P. Marsden,
• Terry K. Smith and
• Adam Nelson

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1924–1931, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.150

• diverse co-substrates. A high-throughput approach was used to identify promising substrate/co-substrate/catalyst combinations which were then prioritised for purification by mass-directed HPLC to yield a total of thirty reactive probes. The structural diversity of the probe set was increased by the

• multiplicity of reaction types between rhodium carbenoids and the many different co-substrate classes, and the catalyst-driven selectivity between these pathways. The probes were screened for activity against Trypanosma brucei, and four probes with promising anti-trypanosomal activity were identified

• a co-substrate (5 equiv; 16 μL of a 6.25 M solution in CH2Cl2) were added to glass vials in a 96-well reaction block, and the solvent left to evaporate after each addition. Subsequently, a dirhodium catalyst (1 mol %; 200 μL of a 1 mM solution in CH2Cl2) was also added to each vial. The final volume

Chiral phosphoric acid-catalyzed asymmetric synthesis of helically chiral, planarly chiral and inherently chiral molecules

• Wei Liu and
• Xiaoyu Yang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1864–1889, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.145

• framework of the diol precursors, predominantly axially chiral structures such as BINOL, H8-BINOL, SPINOL and VAPOL scaffolds, which are widely used in the development of CPA catalysts. Furthermore, the ortho-aryl substitutions of the CPA catalyst can efficiently modulate the stereochemical and electronic

• ortho-positions. The dual hydrogen-bonding interactions were critical for this reaction, ensuring that the reaction proceeded within the chiral pocket of the CPA catalyst. Moreover, the authors proposed that the extended π-substituents at the ortho-positions of CPA could engage in π–π-stacking

• interactions with the enehydrazine intermediate, which is essential for achieving high levels of stereocontrol. Using the optimal catalyst CPA 1, a series of aza[6]helicenes 3a,b was synthesized with excellent enantioselectivity and high yield. However, this method demonstrated notably reduced efficiency and

Systematic pore lipophilization to enhance the efficiency of an amine-based MOF catalyst in the solvent-free Knoevenagel reaction

• Pricilla Matseketsa,
• Margret Kumbirayi Ruwimbo Pagare and
• Tendai Gadzikwa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1854–1863, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.144

• Pricilla Matseketsa Margret Kumbirayi Ruwimbo Pagare Tendai Gadzikwa Department of Chemistry, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, United States 10.3762/bjoc.21.144 Abstract We systematically lipophilized an amine-based metal-organic framework (MOF) catalyst and applied the

• groups. This selective functionalization yielded MOFs in which the catalytically active amines are confined within highly lipophilic pores, reminiscent of many enzyme active sites. We determined that systematically increasing the lipophilicity of the pores results in a commensurate increase of catalyst

• catalytic performance and/or systematically investigate the influence of a particular chemical or structural property on catalyst efficiency [23]. For examples of tailoring the pore environment in MOF-based catalysts to modulate catalytic performance, we can refer to the elegant work of Telfer and co

Photoswitches beyond azobenzene: a beginner’s guide

• Michela Marcon,
• Christoph Haag and
• Burkhard König

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1808–1853, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.143

• molybdenum catalyst allows partial conversion of the recovered by-product to the final product 35b, while for the S-heterodiazocine lead was used for the reduction in neat conditions (Scheme 14) [53]. N-Heterodiazocines (Scheme 15) can be synthesised by coupling of monoprotected diamine 55 with benzyl

Fe-catalyzed efficient synthesis of 2,4- and 4-substituted quinolines via C(sp²)–C(sp²) bond scission of styrenes

• Prafull A. Jagtap,
• Manish M. Petkar,
• Vaishnavi R. Sawant and
• Bhalchandra M. Bhanage

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1799–1807, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.142

• [53]. In this work, the authors used a stoichiometric amount of Zn(OTf)3 as a Lewis acid catalyst and air as the oxidant for the reaction. Jana and colleagues demonstrated an atom-efficient pseudo-three-component C–H annulation reaction catalyzed by Yb and Cu, which involved nitrosoarenes and styrene

• , the present C–H annulation reaction of aniline (1a) with styrene (2a) was initially carried out in TFE (trifluoroethanol) as solvent in the presence of 25 mol % FeCl3·6H2O as a catalyst and 1.5 equiv of TFA (trifluoroacetic acid) as an additive (Table 1, entry 1). For this reaction, 12% of 2,4

• , FeCl3·6H2O provided the best results (Table 1, entry 2). A further reduction in catalyst loading from 25 mol % to 20 mol % and 10 mol % resulted in a noticeable decrease in both selectivity and conversion efficiency (Table 1, entries 7 and 8). This is likely due to insufficient C(sp2)–C(sp2) bond

Preparation of a furfural-derived enantioenriched vinyloxazoline building block and exploring its reactivity

• Madara Darzina,
• Anna Lielpetere and
• Aigars Jirgensons

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1737–1741, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.136

• successful as the reaction was stopped at the spirocycle 4d formation stage (Table 1, entry 9). The removal of the N-Alloc group in unsaturated ester S-3d was performed using a Pd catalyst and pyrrolidine as a nucleophile. The use of Pd(PPh3)4 as the catalyst led to a fast consumption of the starting

• analogously from ester R-3d. Thus, Alloc was validated as non-expensive and relatively small N-protecting group, removal of which is compatible with double bond and acetal function of amides S-5 and R-5. The removal of the Pd catalyst at laboratory scale was done by chromatography. For large scale synthesis

Approaches to stereoselective 1,1'-glycosylation

• Daniele Zucchetta and
• Alla Zamyatina

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1700–1718, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.133

• coordination of the boron center with the remaining C2-OH group increases its acidity, thereby generating in situ an acidic catalyst for the activation of the glycosyl donor [62][63]. In this approach, the use of glycosyl phosphites of gluco- (35) and galacto- (38) configuration as donors, in combination with

• lactol 42 afforded the corresponding 1,1'-linked diglucosamine 43 in almost quantitative yield in the borinic acid-promoted glycosylation with the phosphite donor 35 (Scheme 4). This outcome was attributed to the involvement of the NH group in complex formation with the borinic acid catalyst, suggesting

• addition, 2-amino-2-deoxy-1,3-diols were successfully employed as glycosyl acceptors, as exemplified by the use of GlcN-derived lactol 42, which was reacted with the 2N-Troc-protected GalN phosphite donor 47 in the presence of borinic acid catalyst to give the β,α-1,1'-linked disaccharide 48 (Scheme 4) [63

Continuous-flow-enabled intensification in nitration processes: a review of technological developments and practical applications over the past decade

• Feng Zhou,
• Chuansong Duanmu,
• Yanxing Li,
• Jin Li,
• Haiqing Xu,
• Pan Wang and
• Kai Zhu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1678–1699, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.132

• technologies including ultrasonication, microwave irradiation, and microreaction technology into conventional nitration frameworks. Nikseresht et al. developed a novel heterogeneous heteropoly acid catalyst (PMA@MIL-53(Fe)), enabled efficient regioselective nitration of phenols under ultrasonic irradiation

• (11%), dichloroethane (8%). and acetic acid (8%) (Figure 4b), which are particularly valued for their ability to dissolve both organic substrates while maintaining chemical stability under the reaction conditions. Notably, sulfuric acid plays a dual role – as catalyst and solvent – in these systems, a

Influence of the cation in hypophosphite-mediated catalyst-free reductive amination

• Natalia Lebedeva,
• Fedor Kliuev,
• Olesya Zvereva,
• Klim Biriukov,
• Evgeniya Podyacheva,
• Maria Godovikova,
• Oleg I. Afanasyev and
• Denis Chusov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1661–1670, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.130

• hypophosphorous acid are commercially available in bulk amounts, however, their usage is understudied in organic processes. While NaH2PO2 has proved to be an efficient four-electron reductant in the catalyst-free reductive amination, the influence of cation in hypophosphite salt has not been studied yet. This

• halogen atom transfer (XAT) agent [17][18]. Standard reduction potentials illustrate that hypophosphite is a powerful four-electron reductant [19]. Our previous studies have proved that NaH2PO2 can be a selective reducing agent in the catalyst-free reductive amination process [20][21][22] that can impart

Catalytic asymmetric reactions of isocyanides for constructing non-central chirality

• Jia-Yu Liao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1648–1660, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.129

• ] involving 6-aryl-2-aminopyridines 27, aldehydes, and isocyanides (Scheme 5a) [35]. By employing chiral phosphoric acid (CPA) C1 as the catalyst, this reaction worked well to afford axially chiral imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines 28 in high-to-excellent yields (up to 99%) and enantioselectivities (up to >99% ee). It

• of the resulting products in developing chiral organocatalysts was investigated as well. For instance, 28a was converted to a thiourea-tertiary amine 29 through a four-step procedure in an overall 36% yield. This compound was then utilized as the catalyst in the electrophilic amination reaction

• condensation between 27 and the aldehyde afforded INT-A, which was activated by the CPA catalyst through hydrogen bonding interaction. The nucleophilic addition of isocyanide to Int-A produced INT-B bearing a stereogenic center. Subsequently, INT-B underwent intramolecular cyclization to generate axially

Formal synthesis of a selective estrogen receptor modulator with tetrahydrofluorenone structure using [3 + 2 + 1] cycloaddition of yne-vinylcyclopropanes and CO

• Jing Zhang,
• Guanyu Zhang,
• Hongxi Bai and
• Zhi-Xiang Yu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1639–1644, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.127

• group in compound 10. Compound 10 can be realized by introducing an ester group in 9, which is the [3 + 2 + 1] cycloadduct from 8 and CO using a Rh catalyst. The [3 + 2 + 1] substrate of yne-vinylcyclopropane (yne-VCP) 8 can be synthesized by Wittig reaction from cyclopropyl aldehyde 7, in which the

• . Applying the traditional solvent dioxane for the [Rh(CO)2Cl]2 catalyzed [3 + 2 + 1] reaction (the catalyst loading was increased from 5 mol % to 10 mol %) gave 9 in only 26% yield. To our delight, the reaction yield could be improved to 87% by using mesitylene [30] as the solvent and the loading of [Rh(CO

• )2Cl]2 catalyst can be reduced to 3.6 mol % (the reaction scale was 20.6 mmol). After finishing the key [3 + 2 + 1] reaction, we focused on building the D ring in 1. Initially, we tried to directly close the ring through addition of the α position of the carbonyl group to the bridgehead vinyl group

Transition-state aromaticity and its relationship with reactivity in pericyclic reactions

• Israel Fernández

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1613–1626, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.125

• as the relative Lewis acidity of the catalyst (measured by the Child’s method [41][42][43]), but do not follow the same trend as the energy of the LUMO(dienophile). This finding therefore challenges the traditionally used LUMO-lowering concept as the ultimate factor controlling the catalysis in these

• LAs [66] (Table 2). As expected, we found that the reduction of the activation barrier (up to ca. 25 kcal/mol) directly correlates with the relative Lewis acidity of the catalyst. In addition, the process becomes more and more asynchronous as the acidity of the catalyst increases, which strongly

• significant reduction of the Pauli repulsion between the reactants in the catalyzed reaction. Therefore, once again we found that the LA catalyst induces a significant polarization in the reactive carbonyl group which (i) renders the process more asynchronous and therefore, less aromatic, but (ii) diminishes

3-Aryl-2H-azirines as annulation reagents in the Ni(II)-catalyzed synthesis of 1H-benzo[4,5]thieno[3,2-b]pyrroles

• Julia I. Pavlenko,
• Pavel A. Sakharov,
• Anastasiya V. Agafonova,
• Derenik A. Isadzhanyan,
• Alexander F. Khlebnikov and
• Mikhail S. Novikov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1595–1602, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.123

• reaction. The highest yield of 3a (85%) was achieved by treating 1 with 3.2 equiv of the azirine in MeOH at 100 °С with 50 mol % of Ni(hfacac)2 (Table 1, entry 13). Lowering the temperature and the catalyst loading resulted in a slight deterioration in the yield and a significant slowing of the reaction

• -methylindole 9a with 2a, carried out in the presence of Ni(hfacac)2 (50 mol %), unfortunately, did not give any identifiable products. Experiments with the catalysts presented in Table 1 were also unsuccessful. Nevertheless, favorable outcomes were achieved through a substantial decrease in catalyst loading