Red light excitation: illuminating photocatalysis in a new spectrum

• Lucas Fortier,
• Corentin Lefebvre and
• Norbert Hoffmann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 296–326, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.22

• , red-light photocatalysis enables innovative applications in phototherapy and controlled drug release, exploiting its tissue penetration and low cytotoxicity. Together, these developments underscore the versatility and impact of red-light photocatalysis, positioning it as a cornerstone of green organic

• chemistry with significant potential in synthetic and biomedical fields. Keywords: green chemistry; medicinal chemistry; organic photochemistry; photocatalysis; red-light mediated transformations; Introduction Red-light-activated photocatalysis has recently gained significant interest as a tool for

• organic photocatalysts. Unlike metal-based systems, organic photocatalysts such as phthalocyanins, squaraines and cyanins, offer effective electron and energy transfer under red-light irradiation without relying on transition metals. This shift towards organic catalysts opens new possibilities for

Molecular diversity of the reactions of MBH carbonates of isatins and various nucleophiles

• Zi-Ying Xiao,
• Jing Sun and
• Chao-Guo Yan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 286–295, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.21

• an indole motif with a ketone and a γ-lactam moiety occur in numerous natural substances [1][2][3][4]. Isatins have many interesting aspects in organic reactions and potential applications. The versatile reactivity of isatins used both as an electrophiles and nucleophiles and their easy availability

• have made them to become valuable building blocks in organic synthesis. Nucleophilic additions or spiroannulation of the highly reactive carbonyl group at the C-3 position of isatins have various fascinating applications in organic synthesis, which allowed transformation of isatins into various

Oxidation of [3]naphthylenes to cations and dications converts local paratropicity into global diatropicity

• Abel Cárdenas,
• Zexin Jin,
• Yong Ni,
• Jishan Wu,
• Yan Xia,
• Francisco Javier Ramírez and
• Juan Casado

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 277–285, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.20

• , National University of Singapore, 3 Science Drive 3, Singapore, Singapore 10.3762/bjoc.21.20 Abstract Oxidized states of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are of importance as they represent charged conductive species in organic semiconductor substrates. In this work, we investigated the properties of

• attracted a growing interest in recent times, both from fundamental and technological reasons [9][10][11]. Antiaromaticity destabilizes the ground state of organic molecules by raising their highest energy occupied molecular orbitals, thus allowing for easy oxidation, doping, and electron-transfer reactions

Synthesis and characterizations of highly luminescent 5-isopropoxybenzo[rst]pentaphene

• Islam S. Marae,
• Jingyun Tan,
• Rengo Yoshioka,
• Zakaria Ziadi,
• Eugene Khaskin,
• Serhii Vasylevskyi,
• Ryota Kabe,
• Xiushang Xu and
• Akimitsu Narita

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 270–276, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.19

• Islam S. Marae Jingyun Tan Rengo Yoshioka Zakaria Ziadi Eugene Khaskin Serhii Vasylevskyi Ryota Kabe Xiushang Xu Akimitsu Narita Organic and Carbon Nanomaterials Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-son, Kunigami-gun, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan

• Organic Optoelectronics Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-son, Kunigami-gun, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan Science and Technology Group, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-son, Kunigami-gun, Okinawa 904

• of zigzag and armchair edges, which may serve as a key building block for obtaining multifunctional organic materials [7]. Since the initial synthesis of BPP by Scholl and Neumann [8], simplified synthetic methods for BPP have been reported over the past decades [9][10][11][12][13][14]. Recently, a

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

• groups in organic synthesis [1][2][3][4]. In chemistry and biology, disulfide bonds play crucial roles in protein folding and stabilization [5][6][7][8] and in the rubber industry, they are used to link different polymer chains [9][10]. The disulfide bond backbone is commonly used as a linker for

• antibody–drug coupling (ADCs), in which the active drug released in the target cell by selectively breaking the disulfide bond [11]. Given the wide applicability of disulfides, the development of efficient, green, mild, and cost-effective methods for the organic synthesis of disulfides is of significant

• sulfinate (Scheme 1) [29][30][31][32]. Among the available alternatives, sodium sulfinate is particularly interesting because it is more stable and easier to transport, and it is widely used in organic synthesis [33][34][35][36][37]. When using sodium sulfite as the starting material for the construction of

Heteroannulations of cyanoacetamide-based MCR scaffolds utilizing formamide

• Marios Zingiridis,
• Danae Papachristodoulou,
• Despoina Menegaki,
• Konstantinos G. Froudas and
• Constantinos G. Neochoritis

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 217–225, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.13

• such, it is becoming increasingly essential for synthetic methods to align with a net-zero carbon future [2][3]. Therefore, advancing C1 chemistry remains a crucial endeavor for our group [4]. In synthetic organic chemistry, C1 compounds are usually installed using CO, CO2, HCO2H, CH3OH and CH4, which

• of aliphatic and aromatic substituents (Scheme 4). Pyrimidines and pyrimidone-bearing indole derivatives are crucial in organic chemistry because of their extensive use as bioactive compounds with a wide array of significant biological activities (DB03074, DB03304, DB08131) [70][71][72]. In a similar

Dioxazolones as electrophilic amide sources in copper-catalyzed and -mediated transformations

• Seungmin Lee,
• Minsuk Kim,
• Hyewon Han and
• Jongwoo Son

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 200–216, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.12

• increasing interest as affordable, versatile, and sustainable catalytic systems. These catalysts are extensively employed in organic synthesis owing to their cost-effectiveness, reduced toxicity, and natural abundance [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. The use of copper salts has enabled a variety of

• -phosphorylation of dioxazolones using organic phosphines and copper catalysts [91]. As shown in Scheme 6, a variety of dioxazolones 14 were explored for the synthesis of N-acyl iminophosphoranes 16. Dioxazolones containing aryl and heteroaryl groups were successfully transformed into the desired products in high

• to yield the stable intermediate INT-21. This intermediate releases the N-acyl iminophosphorane 16 through the incorporation of another organic phosphine, thereby regenerating the active copper species 17. 1.6 Synthesis of N-sulfenamides In 2022, the research groups of Wang and Chen introduced a

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

• studies of organic salts in CDCl3, including 1b and 3b, did not produce observable signals. To solubilize the salts better, we substituted deuterated nitromethane (CD3NO2) for CDCl3. Because of the nearly identical hydrogen donation and acceptance abilities of nitromethane (α = 0.22 and β = 0.06

• , the ΔδDMSO–CD3NO2 values of N-methylated CF2H-containing organic salts are generally smaller than those of the corresponding neutral precursors. This observation contradicts our initial prediction that introducing a quaternary nitrogen would enhance the HB donation ability of the CF2H group. It is

Hydrogen-bonded macrocycle-mediated dimerization for orthogonal supramolecular polymerization

• Wentao Yu,
• Zhiyao Yang,
• Chengkan Yu,
• Xiaowei Li and
• Lihua Yuan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 179–188, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.10

• ]. This is not only due to their rich host–guest chemistry but also due to π-surface-enabled self-assembly that enables the creation of various supramolecular structures, such as discotic liquid crystals [33], nanodimers [34], and organic frameworks [35]. Among them, shape-persistent hydrogen-bonded

• amide macrocycle with six aromatic residues (hereafter called cyclo[6]aramide for brevity, Scheme 1a) could mediate dimerization as a host. That is because such a 2D macrocycle has six carbonyl oxygen atoms pointing inwards as binding sites, demonstrating excellent affinity for cationic organic guests

Recent advances in electrochemical copper catalysis for modern organic synthesis

• Yemin Kim and
• Won Jun Jang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 155–178, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.9

• Yemin Kim Won Jun Jang Department of Chemistry and Nanoscience, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, 03760, Korea 10.3762/bjoc.21.9 Abstract In recent decades, organic electrosynthesis has emerged as a practical, sustainable, and efficient approach that facilitates valuable transformations in synthetic

• electrochemistry and copper catalysis for various organic transformations. Keywords: copper; electrochemistry; radical chemistry; single-electron transfer; sustainable catalysis; Introduction Transition-metal-catalyzed cross-coupling has emerged as an effective method for forming carbon–carbon (C–C) and carbon

• –heteroatom (C–X, where X = N, O, or halogens) bonds in organic synthesis. Copper was one of the first transition metals employed in cross-coupling to form C–C and C–X bonds [1][2]. In 1901, Ullmann reported the first cross-coupling reaction for the formation of biaryl compounds in the presence of

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

• organic chemistry owing to their high bond dissociation energy compared to other aromatic C–X (X = Cl, Br, I) bonds [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. This activation is essential for the late-stage functionalization of stable C–F bonds in complex molecules with reactive functional groups, providing an orthogonal

• mmol), and K2CO3 (50 mg, 0.36 mmol) were added toluene (3.0 mL) and H2O (0.6 mL). After stirring at room temperature for 13 h, the reaction mixture was diluted with H2O. Organic materials were extracted with diethyl ether three times. The combined extracts were washed with brine and dried over Na2SO4

Cu(OTf)₂-catalyzed multicomponent reactions

• Sara Colombo,
• Camilla Loro,
• Egle M. Beccalli,
• Gianluigi Broggini and
• Marta Papis

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 122–145, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.7

• ; heteropolycycles; multicomponent reactions; one-pot reaction; Introduction Copper has gained a relevant role in organic synthesis as an alternative to precious metals due to its low toxicity, ease of handling, high catalytic activity, and cost-effectiveness [1][2]. In recent years, Cu(OTf)2 has significantly

• known processes, a particular Mannich-type reaction was realized in water in the presence of a dendritic 2,2’-bipyridine ligand 2 and Cu(OTf)2 (Scheme 2) [16]. The hydrophobic ligand surrounding the metal revealed to be essential for the organic synthesis in water, thus increasing the reaction yields

Recent advances in organocatalytic atroposelective reactions

• Henrich Szabados and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 55–121, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.6

• Henrich Szabados Radovan Sebesta Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Science, Comenius University Bratislava, Mlynská dolina, Ilkovičova 6, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia 10.3762/bjoc.21.6 Abstract Axial chirality is present in a variety of naturally occurring compounds, and is

• ; Introduction Stereoselective catalytic formation of chiral compounds is one of the critical tasks of modern organic synthesis [1]. The catalytic formation of compounds with a center of chirality has been the focus of countless works and can now be considered a matured area. On the other hand, the generation of

Hot shape transformation: the role of PSar dehydration in stomatocyte morphogenesis

• Remi Peters,
• Levy A. Charleston,
• Karinan van Eck,
• Teun van Berlo and
• Daniela A. Wilson

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 47–54, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.5

• room temperature with an organic solvent content of 33% The window for shape transformation seems to lie between 60 °C and 80 °C, with the best result being obtained at 70 °C (Figure 3). When the temperature is too low, the shape transformation cannot happen as the membrane is still too permeable

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

• NaOH (10 mL) was added under stirring. The mixture was extracted with 2-PrOH (3 × 10 mL), and the organic extracts were combined, thoroughly dried over MgSO4, and filtered. (I): The residue was concentrated under reduced pressure and dissolved in a large amount of diethyl ether. The amino products were

• DCM (3 × 15 mL). The organic extracts were combined, dried over MgSO4, and concentrated under reduced pressure to deliver 9b as colorless liquid (92%). 1H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl3) δ 1.87 (br, 1H), 4.69 (s, 2H), 7.31 (m, J = 2.67 Hz, 1H), 7.37 (m, J = 2.30 Hz, 4H); 13C NMR (151 MHz, CDCl3) δ 65.48, 127.12

Emerging trends in the optimization of organic synthesis through high-throughput tools and machine learning

• Pablo Quijano Velasco,
• Kedar Hippalgaonkar and
• Balamurugan Ramalingam

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 10–38, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.3

• reactors; data processing; high-throughput experimentation; machine learning; reaction optimization; Introduction Organic synthesis plays a crucial role in drug discovery, polymer synthesis, materials science, agrochemicals, and specialty chemicals. Their synthesis and process optimization require

• tasks and reducing the overall process development lead time [3][4]. A standard workflow and general methodology for organic reaction optimization through ML methods is shown in Figure 1. The workflow comprises (i) careful design of experiments (DOE); (ii) reaction execution with commercial high

• of suggested optimization results. Through an examination of methodologies, algorithms, and various case studies, this article offers our perspective on the state-of-the-art techniques for optimizing the synthesis of organic molecules, highlighting both challenges and prospects. The structure of this

Synthesis, structure and π-expansion of tris(4,5-dehydro-2,3:6,7-dibenzotropone)

• Yongming Xiong,
• Xue Lin Ma,
• Shilong Su and
• Qian Miao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1–7, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.1

• orange solution in common organic solvents, and its solution in cyclohexane exhibits very weak orange photoluminescence with a quantum yield as low as 3.9 × 10−4 upon excitation at 400 nm. Such a low photoluminescence quantum yield may be attributed to the conformational motions of the helicene moieties

Synthesis, characterization, and photophysical properties of novel 9‑phenyl-9-phosphafluorene oxide derivatives

• Shuxian Qiu,
• Duan Dong,
• Jiahui Li,
• Huiting Wen,
• Jinpeng Li,
• Yu Yang,
• Shengxian Zhai and
• Xingyuan Gao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3299–3305, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.274

• phosphine oxide (PO) groups have recently received considerable attention for their high thermal stability and unique optoelectronic features, and thus being widely applied in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) [1][2]. To date, tremendous efforts have been devoted to the development of a variety of high

• recent years, and they are mostly based on purely organic electron donor−electron acceptor (D−A) or D−A−D systems with significant intramolecular charge transfer interactions for frontier molecular orbital separation [28][29][30]. Due to the electron-accepting properties, PhFlOP can clearly act as an

Synthesis of acenaphthylene-fused heteroarenes and polyoxygenated benzo[j]fluoranthenes via a Pd-catalyzed Suzuki–Miyaura/C–H arylation cascade

• Merve Yence,
• Dilgam Ahmadli,
• Damla Surmeli,
• Umut Mert Karacaoğlu,
• Sujit Pal and
• Yunus Emre Türkmen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3290–3298, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.273

• focus of extensive research within the past two decades due to their interesting structural features, attractive photophysical properties, and diverse applications [2]. Indeed, fluoranthenes are particularly useful in supramolecular chemistry, organic electronics, and materials science [3] as

• fluorescent chemosensors and probes [4][5][6], as well as materials for applications in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) [7][8][9], organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) [10], and perovskite solar cells [11]. In this respect, replacing either one or more of the carbons or rings of a fluoranthene with

• from certain plant species (Figure 1) [12]. The acenaphthylene-fused thiophene-based heteroarene 3 is another heterocyclic fluoranthene analogue, which was used as an organic semiconductor in transistors [13]. The synthesis and coordination complexes of the acenaphthylene-fused N-heterocyclic (NHC

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

• . A plausible mechanism is proposed, suggesting a possible radical pathway. Keywords: electrophilic amination; hypervalent iodine reagents; sulfinamide; sulfonamide; Introduction Iodine(III) compounds, known as λ3-iodanes, have been extensively applied in organic synthesis. Although initially used

• reagent 2a in most organic solvents, an alternative solvent was tested; nevertheless, BBX 2a showed to be insoluble when using toluene (Table 1, entry 3). To have further insights on the formation of sulfonamide 5aa, an experiment was conducted under the same stoichiometric conditions that yielded product

Giese-type alkylation of dehydroalanine derivatives via silane-mediated alkyl bromide activation

• Perry van der Heide,
• Michele Retini,
• Fabiola Fanini,
• Giovanni Piersanti,
• Francesco Secci,
• Daniele Mazzarella,
• Timothy Noël and
• Alberto Luridiana

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3274–3280, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.271

• ; Introduction The construction of C(sp3)–C(sp3) bonds is a highly important target in synthetic organic chemistry. Historically, polar conjugate additions have been a benchmark method for constructing these bonds by functionalizing an electron-deficient olefin [1][2][3]. Recently, however, radical-based

Efficient synthesis of fluorinated triphenylenes with enhanced arene–perfluoroarene interactions in columnar mesophases

• Yang Chen,
• Jiao He,
• Hang Lin,
• Hai-Feng Wang,
• Ping Hu,
• Bi-Qin Wang,
• Ke-Qing Zhao and
• Bertrand Donnio

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3263–3273, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.270

• tuneability of the optical and electronic properties, which can potentially be exploited for advanced applications in display technologies, photonic devices, sensors, and organic electronics. We recently successfully reported the straightforward synthesis of several mesogens containing four lateral aliphatic

• crystals (F-DLCs) [13][14][15][16][17] of interest for organic electronics and optical advanced materials, as they tend to promote more efficient molecular stacking into columns than their purely hydrogenated counterparts [18][19], thereby improving one-dimensional charge transport properties [20][21][22

• increase their structural and functional diversity. In the modern organic synthetic tool-box, the fluoroarene nucleophilc substitution (SNFAr) reaction possesses many outstanding advantages in the synthesis of π-conjugated functional molecules: the electrophiles are plentiful and include cheaply available

Intramolecular C–H arylation of pyridine derivatives with a palladium catalyst for the synthesis of multiply fused heteroaromatic compounds

• Yuki Nakanishi,
• Shoichi Sugita,
• Kentaro Okano and
• Atsunori Mori

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3256–3262, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.269

• ; phosphine ligand; pyridine amides; Introduction Transition-metal-catalyzed synthetic reactions have recently attracted much attention in synthetic organic chemistry [1][2]. C–H Arylation reactions catalyzed by a transition metal are of particular interest because these reactions involve rather superior

• dichloromethane (2 mL) three times. The combined organic extracts were repeatedly washed with water (20 mL) and brine (20 mL). The organic layer was dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and concentrated under reduced pressure to give a crude material, which was purified by silica gel column chromatography (hexane

Non-covalent organocatalyzed enantioselective cyclization reactions of α,β-unsaturated imines

• Sergio Torres-Oya and
• Mercedes Zurro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3221–3255, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.268

• -raising activation (amine-based catalysis and N-heterocyclic carbenes), and iii) LUMO-lowering and HOMO-raising activation (bifunctional thioureas and squaramides). Due to the ubiquitous nature of non-covalent interactions in organic systems, they can play a decisive role in asymmetric transformations [15

• , and it will be a useful reference for organic chemists working in the field of asymmetric organocatalysis. The review is divided into sections, each covering a different catalytic system. Additionally, a chronological order is followed in the subchapters. In order to also give a general overview of

Ceratinadin G, a new psammaplysin derivative possessing a cyano group from a sponge of the genus Pseudoceratina

• Shin-ichiro Kurimoto,
• Kouta Inoue,
• Taito Ohno and
• Takaaki Kubota

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3215–3220, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.267

• , the first asymmetric total synthesis of psammaplysin A was accomplished by Smith and Morrow, and the absolute configuration of compound 1 was also confirmed through organic synthesis [7]. In our ongoing research focused on uncovering new bioactive secondary metabolites from Okinawan marine sponges, we