A review of recent advances in electrochemical and photoelectrochemical late-stage functionalization classified by anodic oxidation, cathodic reduction, and paired electrolysis

• Nian Li,
• Ruzal Sitdikov,
• Ajit Prabhakar Kale,
• Joost Steverlynck,
• Bo Li and
• Magnus Rueping

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2500–2566, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.214

• then attacked by the nucleophilic amidosulfinate, which also functions as an electrolyte. The amidosulfinate is generated through the formation of a Lewis acid–base adduct. A subsequent oxidation step, accompanied by deprotonation, yields the sulfonamide product. SO2 captures the excess electrons via

• Lewis acid complex of Rh has been employed by Meggers and coworkers to functionalize the α-position of 2-acylimidazoles [55]. The reported transformation represents a successful example of a catalytic asymmetric electrosynthesis, which is typically quite challenging. The process was conducted in an

HFIP as a versatile solvent in resorcin[n]arene synthesis

• Hormoz Khosravi,
• Valeria Stevens and
• Raúl Hernández Sánchez

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2469–2475, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.211

• ][75]. Variations in catalyst nature between a Brønsted and Lewis acid, and the acid’s pKa (Table 1, entries 6–8) did not improve the yield compared to HCl (Table 1, entry 4). Last, further exploration of the conditions using HFIP/HCl revealed that the reaction progress achieves its maximum conversion

Evaluating the halogen bonding strength of a iodoloisoxazolium(III) salt

• Dominik L. Reinhard,
• Anna Schmidt,
• Marc Sons,
• Julian Wolf,
• Elric Engelage and
• Stefan M. Huber

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2401–2407, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.204

• has been known since the end of the 19th century and their use as aryl-transfer reagents has been widely explored [1][2][3]. The application as Lewis acid catalysts, on the other hand, has only gained interest in the last ten years after a first report by Han and Liu in 2015 on their use as catalysts

• in a Mannich reaction [4]. In 2018, our group showed in a proof-of-principle study [5] that the Lewis acid catalysis by DAI salts is based on halogen bonding (XB), an interaction between a Lewis base (XB acceptor) and an electrophilic halogen atom in the Lewis acid (XB donor) [6][7][8][9][10]. In

Asymmetric organocatalytic synthesis of chiral homoallylic amines

• Nikolay S. Kondratyev and
• Andrei V. Malkov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2349–2377, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.201

• -imine is activated either with a Brønsted or Lewis acid. In both cases, the allyl group of the silane reagent 46 attacks from the Re-face of the imine, leading to the major (R)-enantiomer of 47. Based on the experimental data obtained with the preformed silylated catalyst and preformed imine, the Lewis

• acid activation mode appears to be the most plausible. Interestingly, chiral phosphoric acids failed to catalyse this reaction, but the use of chiral sulphonimide 45 afforded 82–97% ee and 65–84% yield on a set of aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes. The low reactivity of the allyltrimethylsilane (46

Hydrogen-bond activation enables aziridination of unactivated olefins with simple iminoiodinanes

• Phong Thai,
• Lauv Patel,
• Diyasha Manna and
• David C. Powers

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2305–2312, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.197

• catalysts or photochemical procedures have been developed to enable this transformation [7][8][9]. The reactivity of hypervalent iodine reagents can be enhanced via Lewis acid catalysis [10]. For example, PIDA becomes a stronger oxidant upon coordination of BF3·OEt2, enabling chemistry that was not

• available in the absence of Lewis acid activation (Scheme 1a) [11][12]. A variety of Lewis acid activators have been reported [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] in an array of group-transfer reactions, including trifluoromethylation, cyanation, and fluorination. Brønsted acid activation has also been

• -pyridinium substituent. Based on those observations, we reasoned that similarly enhanced reactivity might be accessed by Lewis acid or H-bond activated iminoiodinanes. Here, we describe the HFIP-promoted aziridination of unactivated olefins with N-sulfonyl iminoiodinane reagents, which are among the most

Efficacy of radical reactions of isocyanides with heteroatom radicals in organic synthesis

• Akiya Ogawa and
• Yuki Yamamoto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2114–2128, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.182

• hindrance. However, several examples of isocyanide insertion reactions into B–H and B–B bonds are known. For example, isocyanides coordinate to diborane (B2H6) or trialkylboranes (BR'3) to form Lewis acid–base complexes (RNC→BH3 or RNC→BR'3), but these complexes are thermally labile, and hydrogen or alkyl

• Lewis acid–base complexes (t-BuNC→BH3) to generate the corresponding isocyanide–boryl radicals 17 (t-BuNC→BH2•), which can be observed by ESR (Scheme 10b) [47]. However, the synthetic application of this boryl radical has not been investigated. Among the cyclic diboron compounds, a series of five

Multicomponent syntheses of pyrazoles via (3 + 2)-cyclocondensation and (3 + 2)-cycloaddition key steps

• Ignaz Betcke,
• Alissa C. Götzinger,
• Maryna M. Kornet and
• Thomas J. J. Müller

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2024–2077, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.178

• , 3,4,5-substituted pyrazoles 5 are formed (Scheme 2) [45]. The Lewis acid catalyst accelerates the reaction via participation in the formation of β-diketonate complexes. Other carbonyl compounds suitable for pyrazole synthesis are 2,4-diketoesters 13. These intermediates can be prepared from diethyl

• serves a dual role as a Lewis acid and an oxidizing agent. However, a significant limitation of the method is that it only tolerates aliphatic 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds, as the reaction with aromatic carbonyl compounds leads to very low yields. Improved yields for the latter can be achieved by isolating

• pyrazole-4-carboxylates. Shen et al. used Yb(PFO)3 (PFO: perfluorooctanoate), a mild and highly efficient catalyst shown to be effective in the Mannich reaction [94], to synthesize these pyrazoles 65 (Scheme 21) [95]. The Lewis acid catalyst activates and stabilizes the enol tautomer of β-ketoesters

Regioselective alkylation of a versatile indazole: Electrophile scope and mechanistic insights from density functional theory calculations

• Pengcheng Lu,
• Luis Juarez,
• Paul A. Wiget,
• Weihe Zhang,
• Krishnan Raman and
• Pravin L. Kotian

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1940–1954, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.170

• the chelation pathway proposed in Figure 5, we hypothesized that 18 (Figure 9) would provide a model for exploring the mechanism further. If chelation between an electron-rich oxygen atom from a substituent and a Lewis acid (such as Cs+ or P+) were taking place, we would expect regioselectivity for

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

• conditions can also be found. 1.1 Metal and Brønsted acid catalysts As previously mentioned, Sc triflate is the most widely used Lewis acid for the GBB reaction, generally exhibiting higher catalytic activity compared to other metal triflates, such as Yb, In or Bi. No extensive work had been done on rare

Chemo-enzymatic total synthesis: current approaches toward the integration of chemical and enzymatic transformations

• Ryo Tanifuji and
• Hiroki Oguri

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1693–1712, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.151

• approach, they used a chiral boron catalyst as a Lewis acid and achieved at best an endo/exo selectivity of 1.9:1 in a similar DA reaction. The use of Diels–Alderase in their recent work significantly improved the endo/exo selectivity under mild conditions in water, thereby highlighting the strengths of

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

• experiment no formation of an alkoxyiodane was observed, indicating that the formation of this ligand-exchanged intermediate is slower than the dehydrogenation. As a consequence, we attempted to accelerate the ligand exchange through the addition of a Lewis acid and the performance of the NHIs was compared

• proposed in the initial experiments is not a Lewis acid activator but just a chloride source. Further optimization studies improved the yield to 78% of 4b using a concentration of 0.20 M of the alcohol and 1.4 equiv of 1a (see Supporting Information File 1). Finally, all NHIs were tested under the

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

• generated in situ simply by mixing PIFA with a Lewis acid, in this case AlCl3. The importance of this protocol arises from the oxidation of an AlCl3-based chlorine atom, which is an available and cheap reagent. Then it is used as an electrophile source in the chlorination process with an umpolung reactivity

• energy between both states indicates the importance of the spontaneous interconversion of both species, which is observed only in the presence of two equivalents of the Lewis acid. After the addition of 2-naphthol, the chlorine atom is introduced barrier-free into the phenolic ring, producing the

Predicting bond dissociation energies of cyclic hypervalent halogen reagents using DFT calculations and graph attention network model

• Yingbo Shao,
• Zhiyuan Ren,
• Zhihui Han,
• Li Chen,
• Yao Li and
• Xiao-Song Xue

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1444–1452, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.127

• applications [27][28][29][30]. For example, hypervalent bromine(III) reagents enable C–H amination and alkene aziridination reactions without the need for additional Lewis acid activation [31][32][33]. However, challenges in the synthesis and stabilization of cyclic hypervalent bromine and chlorine reagents

A comparison of structure, bonding and non-covalent interactions of aryl halide and diarylhalonium halogen-bond donors

• Nicole Javaly,
• Theresa M. McCormick and
• David R. Stuart

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1428–1435, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.125

• (Scheme 1a) [1][2][3][4]. Hypervalent halogen compounds, specifically diaryliodonium salts, have also been known to form Lewis acid–base adducts [9][10] and a relative scale to quantify this property has recently been reported [11][12]. Consequently, there has been a recent surge in the use of

Challenge N- versus O-six-membered annulation: FeCl₃-catalyzed synthesis of heterocyclic N,O-aminals

• Giacomo Mari,
• Lucia De Crescentini,
• Gianfranco Favi,
• Fabio Mantellini,
• Diego Olivieri and
• Stefania Santeusanio

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1412–1420, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.123

• to afford, by a chemospecific Lewis acid-catalyzed ring-closure protocol, valuable heterocyclic N,O-aminals (Scheme 1). Results and Discussion Since the direct functionalization of N-heterocycles offers an attractive entry to important molecular targets that might otherwise require lengthy synthetic

• formation of N,O-aminals 5 and hemiaminals 6. Control mechanistic experiments. Optimization conditions for the Lewis acid-catalyzed intramolecular cyclization of 4a. Supporting Information Supporting Information File 16: General experimental information, synthetic procedures, analytical data and NMR

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

• electrophilicity of the halogen source could be modulated to render different classes of nucleophiles for additions onto olefins in various olefin difunctionalization reactions [48][49][50][51][52]. In particular, we demonstrated that addition of either a Lewis acid or a base could activate amides to couple with

Synthetic applications of the Cannizzaro reaction

• Bhaskar Chatterjee,
• Dhananjoy Mondal and
• Smritilekha Bera

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1376–1395, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.120

• potentially useful molecules. Keywords: Cannizzaro reaction; crossed-Cannizzaro; desymmetrization; Lewis acid catalyst; natural products; Introduction The synthesis of functionalized molecules with structural complexity has always been a challenge to synthetic chemists. The Cannizzaro reaction, in its

• numerous modified techniques, which established the greener side of the reaction. The use of Lewis acid catalysis in this regard [34][35][36][37][38][39] played a significant role, which also suppressed the epimerization in the case of chiral molecules. Among the various Lewis acid catalysts such as

• methodologies, such as Lewis acid catalysis, desymmetrization of symmetrical dialdehydes, synthesis of natural products, and building blocks. These modifications constitute the main highlight of this review. The use of modern technology and newer strategies aiming towards industrial benefit is the goal for the

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

• conventional metal hydrides, such as tin or silicon hydrides. The reaction mechanism is interesting since first, a Lewis acid–base adduct is generated by interaction of Et3N with a boron atom of bis(catecholato)diboron (B2cat2, 19). As a result, one of the catecholate ligands experiences an increase in

Competing electrophilic substitution and oxidative polymerization of arylamines with selenium dioxide

• Vishnu Selladurai and
• Selvakumar Karuthapandi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1221–1235, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.105

• mechanism for the formation of oxamide is shown in Scheme 6. Formation of acetanilide in the reaction of aniline and acetonitrile is known to occur in the presence of Lewis acid catalyst Al2O3 [55]. In our case, either SeO2 (Lewis acid) or H2SeO3 (Brønsted acid) may act as acid catalyst to convert aniline

Bismuth(III) triflate: an economical and environmentally friendly catalyst for the Nazarov reaction

• Manoel T. Rodrigues Jr.,
• Aline S. B. de Oliveira,
• Ralph C. Gomes,
• Amanda Soares Hirata,
• Lucas A. Zeoly,
• Hugo Santos,
• João Arantes,
• Catarina Sofia Mateus Reis-Silva,
• João Agostinho Machado-Neto,
• Leticia Veras Costa-Lotufo and
• Fernando Coelho

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1167–1178, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.99

• pentadienyl cation [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Until the past decade, the conditions used for the Nazarov reaction generally involved the use of a stoichiometric amount of a strong Lewis acid (e.g., BF3, TiCl4, SnCl4, AlCl3) in relation to the divinyl ketone derivative [21][22][23]. However

• , Dhoro and Tius demonstrated that weak acids could also be used as efficient catalysts for the Nazarov reaction [24]. In this context, some research groups developed methodologies that allowed the use of a catalytic amount of Lewis acid. By using more reactive divinyl ketone derivatives, the

Synthesis of 1,4-azaphosphinine nucleosides and evaluation as inhibitors of human cytidine deaminase and APOBEC3A

• Maksim V. Kvach,
• Stefan Harjes,
• Harikrishnan M. Kurup,
• Geoffrey B. Jameson,
• Elena Harjes and
• Vyacheslav V. Filichev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1088–1098, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.96

• , t-BuOK), with Hoffer’s chlorosugar (13) in the presence or absence of Lewis acid (TMSOTf, SnCl4) did not result in formation of a reasonable amount of appropriate nucleoside (Scheme 2). Nucleobase 12 could not be converted to the corresponding silylated derivative by using HMDS, TMSCl or a

• , providing a linear nucleoside 17 as a mixture of two anomers, which were successfully separated on a silica gel column. Finally, cyclisation of a linear nucleoside was accomplished in the presence of a catalytic amount of the Lewis acid TMSOTf in 64% yield. Unfortunately, cyclisation was accompanied by

(Bio)isosteres of ortho- and meta-substituted benzenes

• H. Erik Diepers and
• Johannes C. L. Walker

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 859–890, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.78

• substrate. Employing Lewis acid catalysis Deng and co-workers reported an alternative pathway to indole-derived BCHs. Polysubstituted BCHs were accessed by nucleophilic addition of the indole to the activated bicyclobutane followed by a Mannich cyclisation [81]. The synthesis of wide variety of tri- and

• by Lewis acid-catalysed cyclisation of bicyclobutanes with aldehydes [84] and polysubstituted 2-oxa-BCHs bearing more complex substitution patterns were synthesised by triplet energy transfer catalysis from benzoylformate esters and bicyclobutanes [85]. Reports of polysubstituted scaffolds larger

Advancements in hydrochlorination of alkenes

• Daniel S. Müller

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 787–814, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.72

• more efficient reactions with alkene 88 (Table 6). In 2022, Oestreich reported the in situ formation of HCl by Lewis acid-induced Grob fragmentation of acid chloride 92 (Scheme 15B) [68]. The inconvenience of this method is that 92 has to be prepared in two steps, including a Birch reduction (Scheme

SOMOphilic alkyne vs radical-polar crossover approaches: The full story of the azido-alkynylation of alkenes

• Julien Borrel and
• Jerome Waser

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 701–713, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.64

• increase the yield of different transformations. Using fluoride scavenger such as TMSCl, TFAA or TMS2(O) led to similar or lower yields (Table 7, entries 3–5). We were pleased to see that in the presence of BF3·Et2O, 4a was obtained in 75% yield (Table 7, entry 6). Addition of a less acidic boron Lewis

• acid B(OTFE)3 had a detrimental effect (Table 7, entry 7). Increasing the stoichiometry of BF3 to 2 equivalents lowered the yield significantly (Table 7, entry 8). In contrast, the loading could be reduced to 30 mol % without impacting the formation of 4a (Table 7, entries 9 and 10). Finally, a fine

Enhanced reactivity of Li⁺@C₆₀ toward thermal [2 + 2] cycloaddition by encapsulated Li⁺ Lewis acid

• Hiroshi Ueno,
• Yu Yamazaki,
• Hiroshi Okada,
• Fuminori Misaizu,
• Ken Kokubo and
• Hidehiro Sakurai

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 653–660, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.58

• approaches have diligently explored the details of reaction kinetics, quantitatively elucidating the impact of encapsulated Li+ on the reactivity of the outer fullerene cage as a specialized “encapsulated” Lewis acid catalyst [10][11]. While previous studies have revealed valuable insights, such as

• electronic effects of the encapsulated Li+ Lewis acid, commonly exhibits significantly higher reactivity compared to empty C60. The much-enhanced reactivity often leads to the formation of multiadducts more notably than in the case of empty fullerenes, and hence, achieving the selective monofunctionalization

• target monofunctionalized products. The results underscore the significantly enhanced reactivity of Li+@C60 in the thermal [2 + 2] cycloaddition reaction due to the electronic effect of the encapsulated Li+ Lewis acid. Moreover, the formation of undesirable bis- and multiadducts was notably suppressed