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

• organosulfur chemistry, sulfenylating agents are an important key in C–S bond formation strategies. Among various organosulfur precursors, N-sulfenylsuccinimide/phthalimide derivatives have shown highly electrophilic reactivity for the asymmetric synthesis of many organic compounds. Hence, in this review

• bonds of unactivated aryls or aromatic sulfenylation by electrophilic aromatic substitution (SEAr) has also recently received attention [38]. In recent years, N-(aryl/alkylsulfenyl)succinimides and N-(arylsulfenyl)phthalimides have been widely employed as new alternative sulfenylating reagents in the

• field of organic synthesis. These compounds are readily accessible, safe, and more stable than toxic, unstable, and foul-smelling thiols. These electrophilic sulfur sources have deserved particular interest for the C–S bond formation via the reaction with various nucleophiles. Their preparation is

Cyclization of 1-aryl-4,4,4-trichlorobut-2-en-1-ones into 3-trichloromethylindan-1-ones in triflic acid

• Vladislav A. Sokolov,
• Andrei A. Golushko,
• Irina A. Boyarskaya and
• Aleksander V. Vasilyev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1460–1470, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.105

• conjugated enones afford O,C-diprotonated forms under superelectrophilic activation conditions. These dications can participate in electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions with arenes ([11] and references therein). Recently, we have shown that the reaction of (E)-5,5,5-trichloropent-3-en-2-one [Cl3CCH

• form of the starting compound [Cl3CCH=CHC(=OH+)Me]. The presence of two strong electron-withdrawing substituents, the trichloromethyl group (CCl3) and a protonated carbonyl (C(OH+)Me), at the carbon–carbon double bond makes this O-protonated species electrophilic enough to react with arenes (Scheme 1a

• ). The second protonation of the C=C bond is hampered due to a strong acceptor character of the substituents, contrary to other more donating enones. As a continuation of the research on the electrophilic activation of electron-poor alkenes bearing two electron-withdrawing substituents at the C=C bond

α-(Aminomethyl)acrylates as acceptors in radical–polar crossover 1,4-additions of dialkylzincs: insights into enolate formation and trapping

• Angel Palillero-Cisneros,
• Paola G. Gordillo-Guerra,
• Fernando García-Alvarez,
• Olivier Jackowski,
• Franck Ferreira,
• Fabrice Chemla,
• Joel L. Terán and
• Alejandro Perez-Luna

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1443–1451, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.103

• protodemetalation to provide ultimately the 1,4-addition adduct. In the presence of carbonyl acceptors, aldol condensation occurs providing overall a tandem 1,4-addition–aldol process. When a tert-butanesulfinyl moiety is present on the nitrogen atom, these electrophilic substitution reactions occur with good

• regardless of its nitrogen substitution; the outcome of the reaction is a tandem 1,4-addition–aldol process. When the tert-butanesulfinyl moiety is present on the nitrogen atom, electrophilic substitution of the intermediate enolates (protodemetalation or aldol condensation) occurs with decent levels of

• is poised to undergo β-fragmentation, but this process can be outcompeted by in situ electrophilic substitution reactions which offer synthetically useful procedures: 1,4-addition (for substrates having N–H bonds) or tandem 1,4-addition–aldol reactions (in the presence of carbonyl electrophiles

Consecutive four-component synthesis of trisubstituted 3-iodoindoles by an alkynylation–cyclization–iodination–alkylation sequence

• Nadia Ledermann,
• Alae-Eddine Moubsit and
• Thomas J. J. Müller

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1379–1385, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.99

• generated by a consecutive four-component reaction starting from ortho-haloanilines, terminal alkynes, N-iodosuccinimide, and alkyl halides in yields of 11–69%. Initiated by a copper-free alkynylation, followed by a base-catalyzed cyclizive indole formation, electrophilic iodination, and finally

• electrophilic trapping of the intermediary indole anion with alkyl halides provides a concise one-pot synthesis of 3-iodoindoles. The latter are valuable substrates for Suzuki arylations, which are exemplified with the syntheses of four derivatives, some of them are blue emitters in solution and in the solid

• synthesis of 1,2,5-trisubstituted 7-azaindoles [34]. Inspired by the coupling–cyclization–alkylation sequence and the stepwise Sonogashira coupling–cyclization–iodination protocol to give valuable 3-iodoindoles by Amjad and Knight [35], we reasoned that the interception by an electrophilic iodination step

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

• and stereoselectivity (Scheme 8) [58]. The mechanism of this reaction differs from the previously reported ones and proceeds through the in situ generation of nucleophilic and electrophilic partners which provides new opportunities for enantioselective oxocarbenium ion-driven CDC processes. Due to an

Metal catalyst-free N-allylation/alkylation of imidazole and benzimidazole with Morita–Baylis–Hillman (MBH) alcohols and acetates

• Olfa Mhasni,
• Jalloul Bouajila and
• Farhat Rezgui

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1251–1258, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.93

• Michael acceptor unit. They have found application as valuable synthons and useful precursors for the synthesis of various biologically active molecules [1][2][3]. Recently, MBH adducts, as electrophilic substrates, have been employed to achieve fruitful results in allylic substitution reactions with

Cyanothioacetamides as a synthetic platform for the synthesis of aminopyrazole derivatives

• Valeriy O. Filimonov,
• Alexandra I. Topchiy,
• Vladimir G. Ilkin,
• Tetyana V. Beryozkina and
• Vasiliy A. Bakulev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1191–1197, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.87

• the data given in the current work. The formation of 3,5-diaminopyrazoles 4a–c occurs, presumably, as a result of a sequential attack of electrophilic carbon atoms of the cyano- and thioamide groups of thioamides 1a–c by nucleophilic nitrogen atoms of hydrazine (3a) and is accompanied by the

Exploring the role of halogen bonding in iodonium ylides: insights into unexpected reactivity and reaction control

• Carlee A. Montgomery and
• Graham K. Murphy

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1171–1190, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.86

• previously proposed for hypervalent iodine compounds [9][117][118][119], Moriarty proposed a carbene-free mechanism for the formation of 11 [113]. In this, the nucleophilic olefin first attacked the electrophilic iodine center to form zwitterion 15, which closed to produce iodocycle 16 and then underwent

• , they believed that the reaction was likely initiated by either single electron transfer between the reagents (not shown), or by electrophilic addition of the olefin onto the ylide, forming intermediate adduct 17. This was followed by formation of iodocycle 18, from which reductive elimination of

• ). In the earlier study, Koser recovered 24 and 27, and they proposed an ionic mechanism wherein the ylide acted as a nucleophile, giving 26 as the initial intermediate (Figure 7, top). To account for the differing products observed, Hadjiarapoglou instead suggested that an electrophilic addition

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

Aromatic C–H bond functionalization through organocatalyzed asymmetric intermolecular aza-Friedel–Crafts reaction: a recent update

• Anup Biswas

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 956–981, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.72

• formation of a new C–C bond [21]. The reaction requires an electrophilic reagent/intermediate present in the reaction system on which an electrophilic attack by the π-electron cloud of the aromatic ring can occur spontaneously to form a dearomatized species. The latter is rearomatized in a succeeding step

• -functionalization of the indole (Scheme 2) [25]. In 2018, Lin and co-workers deployed pyrroles 9 in an aza-Friedel–Crafts reaction with trifluoromethyldihydrobenzoazepinoindoles 8 to achieve the aromatic electrophilic substitution at the C2 position of the pyrrole ring. A further extension of the scope of this

• aldimines further expanded the substrate scope. Only 1 mol % catalyst loading was sufficiently efficient to deliver the enantioenriched products (Scheme 11a). The compatibility of the reaction was further explored by using N-tosyl arylaldimines 40 as the electrophilic partner to afford (aryl)(indolyl

Photoredox catalysis enabling decarboxylative radical cyclization of γ,γ-dimethylallyltryptophan (DMAT) derivatives: formal synthesis of 6,7-secoagroclavine

• Alessio Regni,
• Francesca Bartoccini and
• Giovanni Piersanti

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 918–927, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.70

• easily generate reactive open-shell radical species and/or intermediates. The substrate is consequently activated for bond cleavage, atom abstraction, or nucleophilic or electrophilic attack. After quenching, the oxidized or reduced photocatalyst regains or loses an electron to return to the starting

Asymmetric tandem conjugate addition and reaction with carbocations on acylimidazole Michael acceptors

• Brigita Mudráková,
• Renata Marcia de Figueiredo,
• Jean-Marc Campagne and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 881–888, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.65

• enolates in high enantiomeric purities. These enolates are reacted with highly electrophilic onium compounds to afford densely substituted acylimidazoles. DFT calculations helped to understand the reactivity of the zinc enolates derived from acylimidazoles and allowed their comparison with metal enolates

• correlates also with the slightly lower yields for the tandem products obtained with Zn enolates from acylimidazoles. Conclusion Enantioselective conjugate additions of dialkylzinc reagents afford chiral zinc enolates. These reactive species were trapped with several highly electrophilic onium compounds to

Pyridine C(sp²)–H bond functionalization under transition-metal and rare earth metal catalysis

• Haritha Sindhe,
• Malladi Mounika Reddy,
• Karthikeyan Rajkumar,
• Akshay Kamble,
• Amardeep Singh,
• Anand Kumar and
• Satyasheel Sharma

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 820–863, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.62

• . In addition, the lone pair electrons of the nitrogen atom interact with Lewis acids instead of the π-electrons of the ring system thus resulting to its reduced reactivity for electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions, such as a Friedel–Crafts reaction [21][22][23]. Hence, it is challenging to

• N-oxide 119b was formed during benzylation of 2-ethylpyridine N-oxide. A possible mechanism has also been reported (Scheme 23b). Electrophilic palladation at the C2-position of pyridine N-oxide 9 provides intermediate 120. The radical intermediate 121 is generated in situ by H-atom abstraction from

• corresponding C2-arylated products 127 in good to excellent yields with high site selectivity. A catalytic mechanism was proposed in which the electrophilic C–H palladation of pyridine N-oxide 9 occurs preferentially at the C-2 position leading to heterocoupling intermediate 128. Subsequent transmetalation

Eschenmoser coupling reactions starting from primary thioamides. When do they work and when not?

• Lukáš Marek,
• Jiří Váňa,
• Jan Svoboda and
• Jiří Hanusek

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 808–819, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.61

• nitrogen and carbonyl oxygen, generating both nucleophilic and electrophilic centers, i.e., a free amino group and protonated carbonyl group, which is much more prone to nucleophilic attack than a carbonyl group itself. Quantum calculations (see the left side of Figure 2) show that the relative stabilities

Bromination of endo-7-norbornene derivatives revisited: failure of a computational NMR method in elucidating the configuration of an organic structure

• Demet Demirci Gültekin,
• Arif Daştan,
• Yavuz Taşkesenligil,
• Cavit Kazaz,
• Yunus Zorlu and
• Metin Balci

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 764–770, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.56

• for those ‘revised structures’ [3]. This paper impelled us to revisit our original work and assess the validity of Novitskiy and Kutateladze’s claim whether our assignment was indeed wrong. Results and Discussion In 2008 we investigated the electrophilic addition of bromine to 1 (7-endo-bicyclo[2.2.1

• , is certainly not surprising since both electronic and steric factors favor attack on the convex face of the pyramidalized double-bond. Electrophilic bromine can attack the double bond in 1 mainly from exo-face of the double bond to form the cyclic bromonium ions 10. The major products, 2, 3, 4, and 5

Palladium-catalyzed enantioselective three-component synthesis of α-arylglycine derivatives from glyoxylic acid, sulfonamides and aryltrifluoroborates

• Bastian Jakob,
• Nico Schneider,
• Luca Gengenbach and
• Georg Manolikakes

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 719–726, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.52

• electrophilic iminium carbon, leading to the amine product as racemic mixture. Consequently, examples for asymmetric Petasis borono-Mannich reactions are rare [13] and usually rely on the utilization of chiral amine components in stoichiometric amounts [10][11]. As part of our research program utilizing the in

Strategies in the synthesis of dibenzo[b,f]heteropines

• David I. H. Maier,
• Barend C. B. Bezuidenhoudt and
• Charlene Marais

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 700–718, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.51

• authors postulated an intramolecular electrophilic substitution via a carbocation intermediate 42 (Scheme 9). Elliott et al. [47] investigated several methods to synthesise substituted dibenzo[b,f]azepines, which included the ring expansion of N-arylindoles 41 to synthesise 43 and the rearrangements of 9

Synthesis of medium and large phostams, phostones, and phostines

• Jiaxi Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 687–699, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.50

• (biscollidine) hexafluorophosphates were efficient halogenium reagents in the electrophilic halocyclization. Hydrogen methyl hex-5-en-1-ylphosphonate (49) generated 2-methoxy-7-iodomethyl-1,2-oxaphosphepane 2-oxide (50a) in 65% yield in 62:38 diastereomeric ratio with iodo(biscollidine) hexafluorophosphate as

Nucleophile-induced ring contraction in pyrrolo[2,1-c][1,4]benzothiazines: access to pyrrolo[2,1-b][1,3]benzothiazoles

• Ekaterina A. Lystsova,
• Maksim V. Dmitriev,
• Andrey N. Maslivets and
• Ekaterina E. Khramtsova

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 646–657, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.46

•  4). Results and Discussion It is known that [e]-fused 1H-pyrrole-2,3-diones (FPDs) (Figure 2) are versatile synthetic platforms enabling the synthesis of numerous heterocyclic species [33][34][35][36]. They are polyelectrophilic compounds, bearing five electrophilic centers, whose reactivity

• irradiation [49]. Secondly, the presence of a highly reactive thioester group C4=O [50] in FPDs 1 made us to expect the position C4 (Figure 2) to be the most reactive electrophilic center in these molecules, which would also contribute to the development of a new synthetic approach to PBTAs. We started our

• proceeds through a different pathway from the one to pyrrolobenzothiazoles 3, 7, and 12. Biologically active PBTAs. Electrophilic centers in FPDs. Approaches to PBTAs via annulation of benzothiazoles. Approaches to PBTAs via annulation of o-aminothiophenols. Approach to PBTAs via radical substitution

Enolates ambushed – asymmetric tandem conjugate addition and subsequent enolate trapping with conventional and less traditional electrophiles

• Péter Kisszékelyi and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 593–634, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.44

• recent realizations of this strategy focusing on lesser-studied trapping reactions and works after 2010. We also present here our attempts to broaden the scope of these enolate trapping reactions by using different types of electrophilic reagents. Review Conjugate additions with organozinc reagents

• have shown that several electrophilic SCF3 reagents (e.g., 43) are suitable for enolate trapping (Scheme 10) [39]. This way, the strong electron-withdrawing SCF3 group can be efficiently introduced stereoselectively allowing access to structurally diverse compounds with altered pharmacochemical

• was also possible. Among electrophilic reagents, unsaturated esters worked best. In collaboration with the Harutyunyan group, we have further explored the possibilities of chiral enolate trapping which were obtained by asymmetric conjugate addition of organometallic reagents. We intended to employ the

Direct C2–H alkylation of indoles driven by the photochemical activity of halogen-bonded complexes

• Martina Mamone,
• Giuseppe Gentile,
• Jacopo Dosso,
• Maurizio Prato and
• Giacomo Filippini

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 575–581, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.42

• to photochemically generate electrophilic radicals that can drive the functionalization of suitable electron-rich substrates [23]. Exploiting this strategy, here we report a novel metal-free methodology for the direct homolytic aromatic substitution (HAS) reaction of indoles 1 with α-iodosulfones 2

Transition-metal-catalyzed domino reactions of strained bicyclic alkenes

• Austin Pounder,
• Eric Neufeld,
• Peter Myler and
• William Tam

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 487–540, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.38

• –Cu species 60 which after electrophilic amination with the O-benzoylhydroxylamine 54 liberates the final aminoborylated product 55 and a benzoyl–Cu complex 61. To close the catalytic cycle a transmetalation of 61 with LiOt-Bu regenerates the active catalyst. In 2017, Xiao and Fu studied the Cu

• suppress β-heteroatom elimination enabling sequential electrophilic trapping of the alkylzinc complex. Although this reaction would more closely fall under the definition of a telescoped reaction than a strict domino reaction, this methodology allowed for the synthesis of difunctionalized strained alkenes

• authors were able to achieve enantioselectivities of up to 99%. Unfortunately, only two examples of electrophilic capturing were explored, using CD3CO2D to give deuterated products and I2. Most reports simply underwent protodemetalation upon quenching to afford the monosubstituted bicyclic alkene. The

Transition-metal-catalyzed C–H bond activation as a sustainable strategy for the synthesis of fluorinated molecules: an overview

• Louis Monsigny,
• Floriane Doche and
• Tatiana Besset

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 448–473, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.35

• involved in most cases an electrophilic SCF3 source (R1R2NSCF3). For these transformations, the following working hypothesis was generally suggested (Scheme 4). After coordination of the palladium catalyst to a directing group, the metallacycle A is formed. This latter undergoes an oxidative addition in

• the presence of an electrophilic source or an oxidation/ligand exchange in the presence of a nucleophilic source (i.e., AgSCF3) and an oxidant (B in Scheme 4). Finally, after a reductive elimination step, the expected functionalized product 6 is obtained and the palladium catalyst is regenerated. In

• 2014, Shen and Xu [117] developed a new methodology for the selective functionalization of 2-arylpyridine derivatives using an electrophilic SCF3 reagent, the Haas reagent I (Scheme 5) [118]. A broad range of 2-arylpyridine derivatives were trifluoromethylthiolated in good to high yields (18 examples

Group 13 exchange and transborylation in catalysis

• Dominic R. Willcox and
• Stephen P. Thomas

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 325–348, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.28

• -hydroboration of the enone 29 with H-B-9-BBN to give an O-B-9-BBN enolate 30. Electrophilic cyanation of the enolate 30 with NCTS 31, and elimination gave the β-ketonitrile 33 and TsN(Ph)-9-B-BBN 34, which underwent B‒N/B‒H transborylation with HBpin to regenerate the catalyst and give TsN(Ph)-Bpin 35 (Scheme 8

• (Scheme 16) [75]. The reaction was proposed to occur through activation of the alkyl fluoride 68 with H-B-9-BBN, followed by electrophilic substitution of the arene 69 to give a Wheland intermediate and a fluoroborohydride 70 (Scheme 16). Loss of H2 gave the arylated product 71, dihydrogen, and F-B-9-BBN

Synthesis and reactivity of azole-based iodazinium salts

• Thomas J. Kuczmera,
• Annalena Dietz,
• Andreas Boelke and
• Boris J. Nachtsheim

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 317–324, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.27

• highly versatile, and a wide range of applications is meanwhile established in organic synthesis [1][2][3][4][5]. They can be applied as mild oxidants [6][7][8], in phenol dearomatizations [9] or in α-oxygenation reactions [10]. In a complemental reactivity, diaryliodonium salts are potent electrophilic

• , the reaction of 4aa in DCE at 50 °C gave the product 5aa in 23% yield (Table 1, entries 1 and 2). A larger amount of TfOH turned out to increase the solubility of the product and therefore impeded the purification process. However, an excess of acid is required for the electrophilic aromatic