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

• catalysis to organic synthesis, focusing on recent developments in Cu-catalyzed electrochemical reaction categorized into four types: 1) C–H functionalization, 2) olefin addition, 3) decarboxylative functionalization, and 4) coupling reactions (Figure 3). This review aims to provide insight into the

• potential of copper-based electrochemical methodologies while also inspiring future research in this rapidly growing field. Review C–H Functionalization Site- and chemoselective C–H functionalization has emerged as a powerful platform for the formation of new C–C and C–heteroatom bonds, offering an

• Cu-catalyzed electrochemical C–H activation strategy through C–H alkynylation of arylamides followed by electrooxidative cascade annulation (Figure 4) [48]. This reaction enables sustainable C–H functionalization by utilizing electricity as the terminal oxidant instead of stoichiometric amounts of

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

• multicomponent synthesis of acyclic and heteropolycyclic systems under copper(II) triflate catalysis are reported. Using alkenes and alkynes as substrates, various types of reactions were considered, including hydroamination, condensation, cross-coupling, C–H functionalization, cycloaddition, aza-Diels–Alder

Advances in radical peroxidation with hydroperoxides

• Oleg V. Bityukov,
• Pavel Yu. Serdyuchenko,
• Andrey S. Kirillov,
• Gennady I. Nikishin,
• Vera A. Vil’ and
• Alexander O. Terent’ev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2959–3006, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.249

• . Keywords: C–H functionalization; oxidation; peroxidation; radical reactions; TBHP; Introduction Organic peroxides are used in many different areas of human activities. The traditional and most developed field is the use of peroxides as initiators in the polymerization process for the production of a wide

C–H Trifluoromethylthiolation of aldehyde hydrazones

• Victor Levet,
• Balu Ramesh,
• Congyang Wang and
• Tatiana Besset

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2883–2890, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.242

• various transformations [54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64]. In consequence, a large number of transition-metal-catalyzed or radical-mediated processes for C–H functionalization of aldehyde hydrazones has flourished over the years. An ideal scenario for a direct and sustainable synthetic route

• towards trifluoromethylthiolated hydrazones will be the direct C–H functionalization of the corresponding aldehyde hydrazone, an uncharted transformation to date. Forging a C–S bond by the direct C–H-bond functionalization of hydrazones is still underdeveloped. Except for transformations leading to the

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

• industrial settings. An anodic oxidation is frequently employed for C–H functionalization, which can simplify late-stage functionalization strategies. Additionally, many of these synthetic methods do not require precious metals, enhancing their appeal in terms of sustainability and cost-effectiveness

• diselenides (Scheme 23b) [32]. 1.2 Organo-mediators-enabled anodic oxidation The Baran group has made significant contributions to the field of organic electrochemistry. One of their developments is the electrochemical allylic oxidation, a highly useful C–H functionalization method applicable to several

• efficient method for C–H functionalization. The continuous flow setup allows for precise control over reaction conditions, enhanced mass transfer, and improved reaction kinetics, leading to higher efficiency and faster reaction times. In 2023, the Chiang group reported the photoelectrochemical homo-coupling

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

• ), Koser’s reagent (PhI(OH)OTs), Zhdankin’s reagent (C6H4(o-COO)IN3, ABX), and Dess–Martin periodinane (DMP) – and find application in an array of synthetically important transformations including olefin difunctionalization, carbonyl desaturation, alcohol oxidation, and C–H functionalization [3][4

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

Heterocycle-guided synthesis of m-hetarylanilines via three-component benzannulation

• Andrey R. Galeev,
• Maksim V. Dmitriev,
• Alexander S. Novikov and
• Andrey N. Maslivets

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2208–2216, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.188

• mainly via metal-catalyzed C–N or C–C bond formation. Despite recent advances in the area of remote C–H functionalization, this strategy still requires some pre-functionalization of the starting material or the use of directing groups [28][29][30][31][32]. An alternative strategy is based on aromatic

From perfluoroalkyl aryl sulfoxides to ortho thioethers

• Yang Li,
• Guillaume Dagousset,
• Emmanuel Magnier and
• Bruce Pégot

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2108–2113, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.181

• study, many research groups described a strategy for ortho-C–H functionalization of aryl sulfoxides with various nucleophiles via a cascade reaction of interrupted Pummerer reaction/sigmatropic rearrangement (Scheme 1a) [6][7][8][9][10][11]. A large range of nucleophiles, such as phenols [12][13][14][15

Harnessing the versatility of hydrazones through electrosynthetic oxidative transformations

• Aurélie Claraz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1988–2004, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.175

• access to diazo compounds as either synthetic intermediates or products. A special attention is paid to the reaction mechanism with the aim to encourage further development in this field. Keywords: C–H functionalization; diazo compound; electrosynthesis; hydrazone; nitrogen-containing heterocycle

Benzylic C(sp³)–H fluorination

• Alexander P. Atkins,
• Alice C. Dean and
• Alastair J. J. Lennox

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1527–1547, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.137

• . This review aims to give context to these transformations and strategies, highlighting the different tactics to achieve fluorination of benzylic C–H bonds. Keywords: benzylic; C–H functionalization; fluorination; photoredox catalysis; Introduction The development of new fluorination methodologies is

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

• hypervalent iodine(III) reagents has been developed [12][13][14][15][16][17] (Figure 1), including the well-known Zhdankin reagents [13] and Togni reagents [14]. These reagents are popularly used as electrophilic group transfer reagents [18][19] in a variety of reactions, such as C–H functionalization [20][21

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

• –halogen bond formation, as well as C–H functionalization [27]. Some notable examples include C–H arylation, various cross-coupling reactions, oxidative coupling, and photocatalytic radical reactions. The advantages of visible-light-induced photoredox catalysis are due to the ability to utilize visible

Nucleophilic functionalization of thianthrenium salts under basic conditions

• Xinting Fan,
• Duo Zhang,
• Xiangchuan Xiu,
• Bin Xu,
• Yu Yuan,
• Feng Chen and
• Pan Gao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 257–263, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.26

• -stage C–H functionalization of arenes, Wickens’s group has introduced an oxidative alkene aziridination strategy that relies on thianthrenation of an alkene under electrochemical conditions [27]. Subsequently, cyclopropanation, [28] aziridination, [29] allylic C–H functionalization, [30][31] transition

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

•  15) [27]. This method involved a series of steps, including the formation of an EDA complex, decarboxylation, radical addition, C–H functionalization, and annulation. Various primary, secondary, and tertiary alkyl N-hydroxyphthalimide esters 33 showed potential as viable substrates for the synthesis

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

• of aryl sulfides by using the catalyst and the base. A catalytic cycle is shown in Scheme 4. Firstly, electrophilic Pd(TFA)2 generated from Pd(OAc)2 and TFA, which (by C–H functionalization of arene 4) led to intermediate II. Oxidative insertion of intermediate II into the N–S bond of 1 afforded

Application of N-heterocyclic carbene–Cu(I) complexes as catalysts in organic synthesis: a review

• Nosheen Beig,
• Varsha Goyal and
• Raj K. Bansal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1408–1442, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.102

• and the use of a ketone was necessary to induce C–H functionalization selectivity in preference to C=C functionalization. The products were obtained in moderate to high yields (Scheme 67). 2.6 N–H and C(sp2)–H carboxylation The application of the [(IPr)CuOH] complex as catalyst for the N–H/C(sp2)–H

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

• significantly different reactivity and chemical selectivity from noble metals (Ru, Rh, Pd). Compared with noble metals, copper catalysts are cheaper and easier to obtain, making Cu more advantageous for industrial applications of C–H functionalization reactions. The Glaser–Hay reaction may be one of the oldest

• Cu-catalyzed oxidative coupling reactions [43]. However, due to complex mechanisms, Cu-catalyzed C–H functionalization reactions developed only slowly in the last decade. Since recently the Cu-catalyzed oxidative coupling has emerged as a powerful synthetic strategy due to the development of CDC

• ]. The current synthesis method depends on the reaction of organic borane with epoxy carbonyl compounds. Using the CDC reaction can save some synthesis steps [105]. Based on DDQ-mediated oxidative C–H functionalization of benzyl ethers, the mechanism can be described as a single electron transfer (SET

Radical ligand transfer: a general strategy for radical functionalization

• David T. Nemoto Jr,
• Kang-Jie Bian,
• Shih-Chieh Kao and
• Julian G. West

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1225–1233, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.90

• behavior of P450 oxygenases encouraged early work on site-selective C–H functionalization [20]. Throughout their studies, it was found that manganese could perform the same HAT and RLT steps as iron at heme active sites. Groves developed the manganese tetramesitylporphine catalyst V (Scheme 2), which was

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

• of several methods for the synthesis of functionalized pyridines or their integration into an organic molecule, new methodologies for the direct functionalization of pyridine scaffolds have been developed during the past two decades. In addition, transition-metal-catalyzed C–H functionalization and

• the mechanisms involved. Keywords: C–H functionalization; heterocycles; pyridine; rare earth metal; transition-metal-catalyzed; Introduction Pyridine, one of the most important azaheterocyclic scaffolds, is found in a diverse range of bioactive natural products, pharmaceuticals, and functional

• functionalize a C–H bond in pyridine with traditional chemical transformations. On the other hand, intriguing developments have been made for the functionalization of inert C–H bonds in organic synthesis during the past two decades. In this regard, the transition-metal-catalyzed C–H functionalization has made

Photocatalytic sequential C–H functionalization expediting acetoxymalonylation of imidazo heterocycles

• Deepak Singh,
• Shyamal Pramanik and
• Soumitra Maity

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 666–673, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.48

• from academia and industry. Herein, we report a direct C-3 acetoxymalonylation of imidazo heterocycles using relay C–H functionalization enabled by organophotocatalysis starring zinc acetate in the triple role of an activator, ion scavenger as well as an acetylating reagent. The mechanistic

• products with excellent yields and regioselectivity, thus confirming excellent functional group tolerability. Keywords: C–H functionalization; imidazo heterocycles; photoredox; regioselective; relay catalysis; Introduction Among all N-fused heterocycles, imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines (IPs) are the prevalent

• aerobic oxygenation approach to imidazo heterocycles II to install the hydroxymalonate unit onto I through sequential photoredox C–H functionalization. Till date, there is no report of the direct incorporation of a quaternary hydroxyalkyl, specifically a hydroxymalonyl group at the C-3 position of IPs

C3-Alkylation of furfural derivatives by continuous flow homogeneous catalysis

• Grédy Kiala Kinkutu,
• Catherine Louis,
• Myriam Roy,
• Juliette Blanchard and
• Julie Oble

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 582–592, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.43

• system was thus found to be compatible with the realization of this type of C‒H functionalization. This process led to a significant reduction of the reaction time compared to the batch, in particular by increasing the temperature to 200–250 °C, without significant losses of activity and selectivity

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

• tool to guide the development of greener and more convenient synthetic protocols [7][8][9][10][11][12]. In this context, photochemical approaches based on electron donor–acceptor (EDA) complexes have been successfully exploited to drive the direct C–H functionalization of a large number of organic

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

• reaction to afford the naphthalene product 88a. Inspired by Zhao’s seminal report on the racemic carboamination of bicyclic alkenes [53], the Cramer laboratory studied the Co-catalyzed enantioselective carboamination of bicyclic alkenes 1 via C–H functionalization in 2021 (Scheme 17) [54]. The authors

• [2.3.1]-bicyclic alkenes 158 for the synthesis of isoquinoline (160) or isoquinolone-fused bicycles 162 (Scheme 28) [74]. Compared to their previous C–H functionalization reaction (Scheme 27) [73], no ring opening was observed. This reaction with O-acetyl ketoximes was amenable to a variety of para

1,4-Dithianes: attractive C2-building blocks for the synthesis of complex molecular architectures

• Bram Ryckaert,
• Ellen Demeyere,
• Frederick Degroote,
• Hilde Janssens and
• Johan M. Winne

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 115–132, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.12

• ][57]. Stereoselective 5,6-dihydro-1,4-dithiin-based synthesis of cis-olefins [42][58]. Addition to aldehydes and applications in stereoselective synthesis. Direct C–H functionalization methods for 1,4-dithianes [82][83]. Known cycloaddition reactivity modes of allyl cations [84][85][86][87][88][89][90