Photoredox-catalyzed intramolecular nucleophilic amidation of alkenes with β-lactams

• Valentina Giraldi,
• Giandomenico Magagnano,
• Daria Giacomini,
• Pier Giorgio Cozzi and
• Andrea Gualandi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2461–2468, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.210

• photocatalysts (PC) that act as oxidants in the excited state [27]. The direct functionalization of amides with alkenes has been a relatively underexplored area in research, as evidenced by the limited number of examples reported in the literature. An interesting observation was made by the Nicewicz group during

Hypervalent iodine-mediated cyclization of bishomoallylamides to prolinols

• Smaher E. Butt,
• Konrad Kepski,
• Jean-Marc Sotiropoulos and
• Wesley J. Moran

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2455–2460, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.209

• entry 2). The cyclization of amide 3a did not occur in the absence of an iodine source. Other oxidants, solvents, and acids were screened but superior conditions were not discovered. With the optimized conditions in hand, the scope of the cyclization was investigated (Scheme 3). We examined the

Deuterated reagents in multicomponent reactions to afford deuterium-labeled products

• Kevin Schofield,
• Shayna Maddern,
• Yueteng Zhang,
• Grace E. Mastin,
• Rachel Knight,
• Wei Wang,
• James Galligan and
• Christopher Hulme

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2270–2279, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.195

• flexibility [8]. Indeed, early incorporation of deuterium during hit generation may negate the need for late-stage C–H functionalization which often requires strong external oxidants or affords products with significantly lower biological activity [25][26][27]. Thus, eight MCRs were evaluated for D-reagent

Radical reactivity of antiaromatic Ni(II) norcorroles with azo radical initiators

• Siham Asyiqin Shafie,
• Ryo Nozawa,
• Hideaki Takano and
• Hiroshi Shinokubo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1967–1972, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.172

• ]. Moreover, the ring-expansion or ring-opening reactions of Ni(II) norcorroles are induced by an activated zwitterionic intermediate [22], oxidants [23][24], and carbenes [25][26]. During the last decade, the various reactivities of Ni(II) norcorroles have been elucidated. However, the reaction with radical

Solvent-dependent chemoselective synthesis of different isoquinolinones mediated by the hypervalent iodine(III) reagent PISA

• Ze-Nan Hu,
• Yan-Hui Wang,
• Jia-Bing Wu,
• Ze Chen,
• Dou Hong and
• Chi Zhang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1914–1921, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.167

• Na2SO4 (Table 1, entries 3 and 4). Next, different commercially available iodanes were employed as oxidants, such as PIDA, phenyliodine(III) bis(trifluoroacetate) (PIFA), N-tosyliminobenzyliodinane (PhINTs), iodosylbenzene (PhIO), and Koser’s reagent (HTIB) (Table 1, entries 5–9). Of the reagents tested

The Groebke–Blackburn–Bienaymé reaction in its maturity: innovation and improvements since its 21st birthday (2019–2023)

• Cristina Martini,
• Muhammad Idham Darussalam Mardjan and
• Andrea Basso

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1839–1879, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.162

• active ones by DNA sequencing. Great challenges, however, characterize the synthetic methodologies, since the chemistry must display a broad scope, be compatible with water and operationally simple, and preserve the genetic information (i.e., no harsh conditions, strongly acidic pHs, no oxidants or Lewis

Synthesis of polycyclic aromatic quinones by continuous flow electrochemical oxidation: anodic methoxylation of polycyclic aromatic phenols (PAPs)

• Hiwot M. Tiruye,
• Solon Economopoulos and
• Kåre B. Jørgensen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1746–1757, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.153

• making them less desirable for industrial scale [19]. Electrochemical synthesis methods have a huge potential and this field is currently undergoing a renaissance [20][21][22][23][24]. Replacing chemical oxidants with electric current reduces waste production and gives a sustainable and inherently safe

• cations B and C which have only one Clar sextet with two alternative positions. Conclusion The electrochemical oxidation of polycyclic aromatic phenols to quinones represents a green alternative to chemical oxidants. Hydrogen gas evolution can be handled by recycling of the reaction mixture through the

Oxidation of benzylic alcohols to carbonyls using N-heterocyclic stabilized λ³-iodanes

• Thomas J. Kuczmera,
• Pim Puylaert and
• Boris J. Nachtsheim

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1677–1683, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.149

• oxidants in combination with transition-metal catalysts. Metal-free methods employ chlorodimethylsulfonium compounds as the reactive species and have gained great popularity under the name Swern oxidation or the Corey–Kim oxidation [11]. Hypervalent iodine compounds have also been studied and are well

• established in several oxidative transformations including the synthesis of complex molecules and drugs [12][13]. The most prominent examples are the pentavalent derivatives 2-iodoxybenzoic acid (IBX) and Dess–Martin periodinane (DMP) [14][15]. Although mild and selective oxidants, these highly oxidized λ5

• iodanes (NHIs) as effective λ3-iodane oxidants for the selective synthesis of ketones and aldehydes, avoiding overoxidation to carboxylic acids. The developed protocols proved particularly effective for benzylic alcohols, yielding good to excellent results. The beneficial role of chloride salt additives

Divergent role of PIDA and PIFA in the AlX₃ (X = Cl, Br) halogenation of 2-naphthol: a mechanistic study

• Kevin A. Juárez-Ornelas,
• Manuel Solís-Hernández,
• Pedro Navarro-Santos,
• J. Oscar C. Jiménez-Halla and
• César R. Solorio-Alvarado

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1580–1589, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.141

• halogenation via PhIX2. Keywords: aromatic bromination; aromatic chlorination; density functional theory (DFT); hypervalent iodine; iodine(III); Introduction Hypervalent iodine(III) reagents have gained attention as strong oxidants with a low toxicity [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] and due to the ability to mimic

• protocol for the electrophilic bromination of arenes, mainly phenols [28][29]. Accordingly, the bromination reaction was initially explored by mixing PIFA and AlBr3, which gave an acceptable yield (84%). However, other iodine(III) reagents were tested as oxidants during the optimization process. Thus, when

Tetrabutylammonium iodide-catalyzed oxidative α-azidation of β-ketocarbonyl compounds using sodium azide

• Christopher Mairhofer,
• David Naderer and
• Mario Waser

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1510–1517, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.135

• easily available and cheapest nucleophilic N3 source (for other remarkable approaches using alternative catalysts and oxidants see references [24][25][26]). In addition to the racemic approach, they also showed that this reaction can be rendered enantioselective by using advanced Maruoka-type quaternary

• of the tert-butyl-containing β-ketoester 1a (Table 1 gives an overview of the most significant results obtained hereby). First experiments testing different oxidants in combination with Bu4NI (30 mol %) in 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE), a solvent that we found to be well-suited for oxidative α

• -heterofunctionalizations before [39], showed that DBPO clearly outperforms all the other oxidants tested under these conditions (Table 1, entries 1–5). While H2O2 gave 2a in low yield only (Table 1, entry 1), the use of mCPBA (Table 1, entry 3) and t-BuOOH (Table 1, entry 4) mainly resulted in the formation of the α-OH

Electrophotochemical metal-catalyzed synthesis of alkylnitriles from simple aliphatic carboxylic acids

• Yukang Wang,
• Yan Yao and
• Niankai Fu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1497–1503, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.133

• converts a diverse range of aliphatic carboxylic acids including primary and tertiary alkyl acids into synthetically versatile alkylnitriles without using chemical oxidants or costly cyanating reagents under mild reaction conditions. Keywords: aliphatic carboxylic acids; alkylnitriles; electroorganic

Synthesis of 4-functionalized pyrazoles via oxidative thio- or selenocyanation mediated by PhICl₂ and NH₄SCN/KSeCN

• Jialiang Wu,
• Haofeng Shi,
• Xuemin Li,
• Jiaxin He,
• Chen Zhang,
• Fengxia Sun and
• Yunfei Du

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1453–1461, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.128

• NH4SCN (Table 1, entries 4–6). Next, other oxidants including phenyliodine(III) diacetate (PIDA), phenyliodine(III) bis(trifluoroacetate) (PIFA), iodosobenzene (PhIO), and NCS were applied, and the results indicated that PhICl2 was the most effective oxidant (Table 1, entries 7–10). Later on, when the

Hypervalent iodine-catalyzed amide and alkene coupling enabled by lithium salt activation

• Akanksha Chhikara,
• Fan Wu,
• Navdeep Kaur,
• Prabagar Baskaran,
• Alex M. Nguyen,
• Zhichang Yin,
• Anthony H. Pham and
• Wei Li

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1405–1411, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.122

• catalysis, which often involves the catalytic use of an iodoarene with stoichiometric oxidants such as MCPBA, Selectfluor, etc. [18][19][20]. Earlier and recent hypervalent iodine-catalyzed olefin halofunctionalizations by several groups have predicated on the use of intramolecular olefin substrates

Generation of alkyl and acyl radicals by visible-light photoredox catalysis: direct activation of C–O bonds in organic transformations

• Mithu Roy,
• Bitan Sardar,
• Itu Mallick and
• Dipankar Srimani

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1348–1375, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.119

• co-workers [46] utilized oxalates as activating groups for alcohols. Alkyl oxalates were effectively converted into useful radicals, catalyzed by an iridium complex under visible-light photoredox conditions (Scheme 9). This new approach does not require any sacrificial use of reductants or oxidants

Mechanistic investigations of polyaza[7]helicene in photoredox and energy transfer catalysis

• Johannes Rocker,
• Till J. B. Zähringer,
• Matthias Schmitz,
• Till Opatz and
• Christoph Kerzig

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1236–1245, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.106

• ][13][14][15]. Most of the established organic catalysts (acridinium salts [16][17][18][19], cyanoarenes [8][20][21][22], quinones [23][24], etc.) [10][25] are cationic or electron-deficient and tend to act as excited state oxidants in a reductive quenching cycle. Only recently, more reducing catalyst

Carbonylative synthesis and functionalization of indoles

• Alex De Salvo,
• Raffaella Mancuso and
• Xiao-Feng Wu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 973–1000, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.87

• functionalize indole scaffolds. We have seen different approaches in which high catalyst efficiencies, mild conditions and the use of low-toxic chemicals as CO source, that do not require the use of autoclaves, have been successfully applied. Furthermore, in some cases, “green” oxidants such as air were used

Copper-promoted C5-selective bromination of 8-aminoquinoline amides with alkyl bromides

• Changdong Shao,
• Chen Ma,
• Li Li,
• Jingyi Liu,
• Yanan Shen,
• Chen Chen,
• Qionglin Yang,
• Tianyi Xu,
• Zhengsong Hu,
• Yuhe Kan and
• Tingting Zhang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 155–161, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.14

• , employing activated and unactivated alkyl bromides as the halogenation reagents without additional external oxidants. This method features outstanding site selectivity, broad substrate scope, and excellent yields. Keywords: aminoquinolines; C–H bromination; copper catalysis; regioselectivity; Introduction

• bromine source in combination with Selectfluor® (Scheme 1, reaction 3) [29]. Despite significant progress in this area, most of these methodologies still suffer from the use of external oxidants, complex reaction equipment, and expensive and/or toxic halogen sources, which limit the practicality for large

1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate as suitable solvent for BF₃: the case of alkyne hydration. Chemistry vs electrochemistry

• Marta David,
• Elisa Galli,
• Richard C. D. Brown,
• Marta Feroci,
• Fabrizio Vetica and
• Martina Bortolami

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1966–1981, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.147

• conditions, without transition metal catalysts, added oxidants, or strong acids involved, using Selectfluor (1-(chloromethyl)-4-fluoro-1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane-1,4-diium ditetrafluoroborate) as essential additive [73]. With regard to the reaction medium, the idea of replacing classic organic solvents

Recent advancements in iodide/phosphine-mediated photoredox radical reactions

• Tinglan Liu,
• Yu Zhou,
• Junhong Tang and
• Chengming Wang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1785–1803, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.131

• of fused ketones 34, eliminating the need for transition-metal catalysts or oxidants. The technique offered a broad substrate scope, remarkable selectivity, and simple reaction conditions. A plausible mechanism had been proposed for the photocatalytic decarboxylative [3 + 2]/[4 + 2] annulation, as

Benzoimidazolium-derived dimeric and hydride n-dopants for organic electron-transport materials: impact of substitution on structures, electrochemistry, and reactivity

• Swagat K. Mohapatra,
• Khaled Al Kurdi,
• Samik Jhulki,
• Georgii Bogdanov,
• John Bacsa,
• Maxwell Conte,
• Tatiana V. Timofeeva,
• Seth R. Marder and
• Stephen Barlow

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1651–1663, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.121

• condenses with the aldehyde but where the subsequent second condensation and oxidation does not take place, i.e., structures of type IV (Scheme 1), which are known to be converted to benzimidazoles by various oxidants and/or catalysts [30][31][32]. The benzimidazoles were then doubly methylated with

Radical chemistry in polymer science: an overview and recent advances

• Zixiao Wang,
• Feichen Cui,
• Yang Sui and
• Jiajun Yan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1580–1603, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.116

• technique requires radical generation on the polymer backbone. A typical approach involves hydrogen abstraction by organic oxidants such as oxygen radicals from peroxide initiators [114], which is similar to the radical crosslinking process, vide infra. Radicals may also be generated thermally, through

• . Radicals can be generated by a broader selection of homogeneous and heterogeneous approaches, including hydrogen atom abstraction, decomposition of immobilized initiators, electrochemical redox reaction, or irradiation because the reactions only need to take place at the surface. Small-molecule oxidants

N-Sulfenylsuccinimide/phthalimide: an alternative sulfenylating reagent in organic transformations

• Fatemeh Doraghi,
• Seyedeh Pegah Aledavoud,
• Mehdi Ghanbarlou,
• Bagher Larijani and
• Mohammad Mahdavi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1471–1502, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.106

• conversion of 1-I to 2-II was confirmed by mechanistic studies due to the stability of the benzyl carbocation, followed by 6-endo-dig cyclization. In this method, toxic transition metal catalysts, oxidants, or bases are not used, which made it economically and environmentally reliable. In 2023, Gao et al

Non-noble metal-catalyzed cross-dehydrogenation coupling (CDC) involving ether α-C(sp³)–H to construct C–C bonds

• Hui Yu and
• Feng Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1259–1288, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.94

• the reaction mechanism supported by DFT calculations and concluded that FeF2 plays an important redox role in assisting the cleavage of oxidants and the oxidation of carbon radicals to cationic intermediates of oxygen. CDC reactions between C(sp3)–H/C(sp)–H bonds catalyzed by iron have been reported

• be seen that the reaction almost always requires a large amount of oxidant to achieve radical formation of the substrate. Therefore, most of them need to sacrifice excessive chemical oxidants and stoichiometric metals, which cause environmental pollution and energy consumption, making the large-scale

Selective and scalable oxygenation of heteroatoms using the elements of nature: air, water, and light

• Damiano Diprima,
• Hannes Gemoets,
• Stefano Bonciolini and
• Koen Van Aken

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1146–1154, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.82

• selectivity and safety. Traditional oxidants, such as Oxone, CrO3, NaIO4, or KMnO4, produce significant amounts of toxic waste, exacerbating these issues (Scheme 1A) [1]. As environmental concerns and economic factors increasingly affect chemical processes, hydrogen peroxide and oxygen (or air) are becoming

• more popular as oxidants due to their low cost and minimal side products. However, these reagents have practical limitations. Hydrogen peroxide is typically produced off-site and requires transportation and storage, and is commonly obtained through the non-sustainable anthraquinone process (Scheme 1B

• oxidants, but gas–liquid mass transfer limitations can reduce productivity. Additionally, in-depth safety studies are necessary to avoid the risk of explosion in batch reactors where an oxygen-rich head space is present along with flammable organic solvents. These risks can be significantly mitigated by

Photoredox catalysis harvesting multiple photon or electrochemical energies

• Mattia Lepori,
• Simon Schmid and
• Joshua P. Barham

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1055–1145, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.81

• (PEC). Herein, we review the most recent contributions to these fields in both oxidative and reductive activations of organic functional groups. New opportunities for organic chemists are captured, such as selective reactions employing super-oxidants and super-reductants to engage unactivated chemical

• generation of super-reductants [15] and by Wagenknecht in 2018 for the generation of super-oxidants [16]. Herein, initial excitation of the photocatalyst by a single photon is followed by reduction or oxidation by a sacrificial SET donor (e.g., Et3N [15]) or acceptor (e.g., SF6 [16]) to yield the catalyst

• doublet states which are photoexcited to yield super-oxidants or super-reductants while recycling e-PRC involves the turnover of a ‘standard’ (typically closed-shell) photoredox catalyst (PC) by means of anodic oxidation or cathodic reduction [28][29]. Furthermore, a series of new protocols using