Recent advances in oxidative radical difunctionalization of N-arylacrylamides enabled by carbon radical reagents

• Jiangfei Chen,
• Yi-Lin Qu,
• Ming Yuan,
• Xiang-Mei Wu,
• Heng-Pei Jiang,
• Ying Fu and
• Shengrong Guo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1207–1271, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.98

Synthesis of β-ketophosphonates through aerobic copper(II)-mediated phosphorylation of enol acetates

• Alexander S. Budnikov,
• Igor B. Krylov,
• Fedor K. Monin,
• Valentina M. Merkulova,
• Alexey I. Ilovaisky,
• Liu Yan,
• Bing Yu and
• Alexander O. Terent’ev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1192–1200, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.96

• ], etc.) and strong oxidants (K2S2O8 [46][54], Mn(OAc)3 [56][57], organic peroxides [51][58][59], etc.) are employed in these approaches. Modern photocatalytic [47][50][60][61] and electrochemical [48][62] methods were also recently reported. Although several successful oxyphosphorylation reactions

Recent advances in synthetic approaches for bioactive cinnamic acid derivatives

• Betty A. Kustiana,
• Galuh Widiyarti and
• Teni Ernawati

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1031–1086, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.85

• chloride 46 and phenylboronic acid in the presence of TBHP and catalytic amounts of K2S2O8. Under these conditions, phenol is formed through oxidative hydroxylation which reacts with 46 to give product 24 in good yield (Scheme 45A) [84]. The method has been scaled up to a gram scale. Similarly, Chi and co

Formaldehyde surrogates in multicomponent reactions

• Cecilia I. Attorresi,
• Javier A. Ramírez and
• Bernhard Westermann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 564–595, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.45

• separation processes are required [32][35][36]. In this context, DMSO has been used as an alternative to formaldehyde for the MCR synthesis of a wide variety of quinolines and related compounds. For example, Zhang et al. showed that starting from anilines and substituted styrenes while using K2S2O8 for the

• ). Additionally, the Tiwari group developed a metal-free protocol using only K2S2O8 as an oxidant for the activation of DMSO to MMS (Scheme 8, path II) [38]. Under these conditions, an alternative mechanism arises in which the imine intermediate B, formed as previously stated through reaction between the aniline

• , methyl aryl ketones, and DMSO under iron(III) catalysis and using K2S2O8 for its activation [39]. The proposed mechanism is very close to those described above, with the methyl aryl ketone taking part of the reaction in place of the styrene component in the Povarov cyclization. In this case, the imine

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

Recent advances in transition-metal-free arylation reactions involving hypervalent iodine salts

• Ritu Mamgain,
• Kokila Sakthivel and
• Fateh V. Singh

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2891–2920, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.243

• corresponding products in moderate to good yields. The reaction conditions remained consistent, except K2S2O8 was found to be a superior additive compared to BQ. The reaction exhibited good tolerance even towards strong electron-withdrawing groups. A control experiment was conducted to investigate the reaction

• assist in the deprotonation of intermediate II to produce final products 27, while K2S2O8 aids in the oxidation of the photocatalyst in the case of pyridine N-oxide. In another photoinduced reaction procedure, Murarka et al. reported the formation of aryl radicals from a tetrameric electron donor

Visible-light-mediated flow protocol for Achmatowicz rearrangement

• Joachyutharayalu Oja,
• Sanjeev Kumar and
• Srihari Pabbaraja

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2493–2499, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.213

• Information File 1). This reactor was then exposed to sunlight/handmade LED to carry out the Achmatowicz rearrangement reaction. To test the model reaction's feasibility, a stock solution containing ethyl 3-(furan-2-yl)-3-hydroxypropanoate (2a)/Ru(bpy)3Cl2·6H2O/K2S2O8/ACN (2 mL)/DMSO (2 mL)/H2O (4 mL) as a

• details in Supporting Information File 1, Table S1, entries 10–18), it was discovered that a combination of ACN/DMSO/H2O solvent, K2S2O8 oxidant, Ru(bpy)3Cl2·6H2O photocatalyst, and 28–34 °C temperature were the best-suited and optimized reaction conditions. After optimization, our efforts were put

• product synthesis. Scope of the integrated continuous photo-flow (visible light)-induced Achmatowicz rearrangement reaction. Reaction conditions: Stock solution (A) comprise of 2/K2S2O8/Ru(bpy)3Cl·6H2O/ACN/DMSO/H2O in a molar ratio of 1:1:0.005:70:54:408; yields are based on isolated yields. Proposed

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

• authors proposed that under heating K2S2O8 decomposed to SO4•− which could then abstract the benzylic hydrogen to generate the benzylic radical. Fluorine-atom-transfer with Selectfluor then afforded the benzyl fluoride. Other fluorinating reagents such as NFSI or DAST did not perform as well. By varying

• the loadings of K2S2O8 and Selectfluor, selectivity for the mono- (conditions A) or difluorination (conditions B) products could be achieved. Building on their previous iron-catalysed work, Figure 11, Lectka and co-workers reported in 2014 the use of triethylborane as a radical chain initiator for C

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

• oxidant (Scheme 1a–c) [49]. For example, Xu reported that a series of 4-thiocyanated 5-hydroxy-1H-pyrazoles was synthesized by a K2S2O8-promoted direct thiocyanation of pyrazolin-5-ones at room temperature, using NH4SCN as thiocyanogen source (Scheme 1a) [20]. Similarly, utilizing NH4SCN and K2S2O8

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

• what we have just written, Li’s group performed the reaction by a Rh-catalysis using [Rh(COD)Cl]2 and re-oxidizing it with K2S2O8. The reactions led to the products in toluene after 24–48 hours at 110 °C under 1 bar of CO (Scheme 36). Another example to obtain indole-3-carboxylates, was again reported

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

• adjacent C=C bond, various conjugated alkenyl C–H bonds can also be activated to construct functionalized ethers. In 2013, Wang et al. achieved a mild Cu(OTf)2-catalyzed CDC of (benzo)thiazoles with cyclic ethers in the presence of K2S2O8 (Scheme 9) [59]. The catalytic system is also suitable for

• methodologies involving ether α-C(sp3)–H and aromatic C(sp2)–H bonds were investigated and these are shown in Scheme 43. Shah et al. reported a catalyst-free CDC method using only 2 equivalents of K2S2O8 in H2O under irradiation with a 27 W CFL (Scheme 43a) [123]. In this reaction, both water and the light

Sulfate radical anion-induced benzylic oxidation of N-(arylsulfonyl)benzylamines to N-arylsulfonylimines

• Joydev K. Laha,
• Pankaj Gupta and
• Amitava Hazra

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 771–777, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.57

• synthesis of synthetically useful N-arylsulfonylimines from N-(arylsulfonyl)benzylamines using K2S2O8 in the presence of pyridine as a base is reported herein. In addition, a “one-pot” tandem synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant N-heterocycles by the reaction of N-arylsulfonylimines, generated in situ

• -aryl(benzyl)amines to N-arylimines using K2S2O8 is reported to be problematic, the oxidation of N-(arylsulfonyl)benzylamines to N-arylsulfonylimines using K2S2O8 has been achieved for the first time. The dual role of the sulfate radical anion (SO4·−), including hydrogen atom abstraction (HAT) and

• single electron transfer (SET), is proposed to be involved in the plausible reaction mechanism. Keywords: arylsulfonylimine; benzylic oxidation; benzyl sulfonamide; K2S2O8; sulfate radical anion; Introduction Among various imine compounds [1], N-arylsulfonylimines are perhaps the most prominent due to

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

• described the selective palladium-catalyzed ortho-2,2,2-trifluoroethoxylation of a series of benzaldehydes (Scheme 22, 35 examples) using the amino acid ʟ-valine in the presence of K2S2O8 and TFA at 80 °C [153]. This reaction proved to be highly tolerant to various substituents including a CF3 group at the

Derivatives of benzo-1,4-thiazine-3-carboxylic acid and the corresponding amino acid conjugates

• Péter Kisszékelyi,
• Tibor Peňaška,
• Klára Stankovianska,
• Mária Mečiarová and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1195–1202, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.124

• successfully prepared [32]. The protocol, using NaI as a catalyst and K2S2O8 as an oxidant, tolerated a broad range of substrates with good stereoselectivity. Interestingly, structurally related benzothiazine derivatives with a carboxylic function in the C-3 position are only seldomly described in the

Menadione: a platform and a target to valuable compounds synthesis

• Acácio S. de Souza,
• Ruan Carlos B. Ribeiro,
• Dora C. S. Costa,
• Fernanda P. Pauli,
• David R. Pinho,
• Matheus G. de Moraes,
• Fernando de C. da Silva,
• Luana da S. M. Forezi and
• Vitor F. Ferreira

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 381–419, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.43

• an interesting artifice to track the dimerization reaction path: they synthesized 2-(methyl-13C)-1,4-naphthoquinone (10) (Scheme 1) [81]. For that, sodium acetate-2-13C was used as the source of the methyl radical, generated by its treatment with K2S2O8 and AgNO3. After 3 hours at 60 °C, the 13C

Synthesis of highly substituted fluorenones via metal-free TBHP-promoted oxidative cyclization of 2-(aminomethyl)biphenyls. Application to the total synthesis of nobilone

• Ilya A. P. Jourjine,
• Lukas Zeisel,
• Jürgen Krauß and
• Franz Bracher

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2668–2679, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.181

• group (Scheme 2) [33]. In contrast to transition-metal-mediated approaches [27], metal-free oxidative methods are attractive not only from an ecological point of view, but also due to the typically low cost of the applied oxidants. Biarylcarboxaldehydes were cyclized to fluorenones using K2S2O8 [34

• nitrate (CAN) [41], 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidinyloxyl (TEMPO)/CuCl [51], K2S2O8 [36], dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)/O2 [52], PhI(OAc)2/benzoyl peroxide (BPO) [47], Dess-Martin periodinane, N-bromosuccinimide (NBS), N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI)/Co(OAc)2/O2 [53], H2O2/tetrabutylammonium iodide (TBAI) [43], CBr4

A visible-light-induced, metal-free bis-arylation of 2,5-dichlorobenzoquinone

• Pieterjan Winant and
• Wim Dehaen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2315–2320, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.149

• be a challenging endeavor. As conventional methods, e.g., the Heck reaction are incompatible with quinones [15], a large subset of research recently focused on radical-based CH-arylation reactions. In 2011, Baran published a seminal paper that relied on using a AgNO3/K2S2O8 induced homolytic

The preparation and properties of 1,1-difluorocyclopropane derivatives

• Kymbat S. Adekenova,
• Peter B. Wyatt and
• Sergazy M. Adekenov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 245–272, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.25

• and the subsequent aerobic oxidation by an amine. Single-electron oxidants such as cerium ammonium nitrate or K2S2O8 were used for the regiospecific ring opening of the simple gem-difluorocyclopropanes 134 (Scheme 58). The brominative ring-opening reactions of compounds 134 gave good yields of the

Access to highly substituted oxazoles by the reaction of α-azidochalcone with potassium thiocyanate

• Mysore Bhyrappa Harisha,
• Pandi Dhanalakshmi,
• Rajendran Suresh,
• Raju Ranjith Kumar and
• Shanmugam Muthusubramanian

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2108–2118, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.178

• thiocyanate 2 in the presence of several oxidants and metal salts (Table 1). The initial attempts employing iodine, CAN and ZnCl2 upon refluxing in acetonitrile for 6 hours did not yield any product (Table 1, entries 1, 2 and 4). When potassium persulfate (K2S2O8) is employed, highly substituted oxazole 3i

• synthesis of 2,4,5-trisubstituted oxazole from azirine. a) I2, PPh3; b) NaH, 1H-pyrazole; c) 2-bromoacetyl bromide, NaN3; d) heating; e) t-BuOK; f) Ph-CHO, visible light; g) KSCN, K2S2O8. Scope of the α-azidochalcones. The reactions were carried out at reflux temperature, using 1 (1 mmol), 2 (3 mmol

Metal-free synthesis of phosphinoylchroman-4-ones via a radical phosphinoylation–cyclization cascade mediated by K₂S₂O₈

• Qiang Liu,
• Weibang Lu,
• Guanqun Xie and
• Xiaoxia Wang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1974–1982, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.164

• motifs were conveniently synthesized from readily available diphenylphosphine oxides and alkenyl aldehydes via a metal-free tandem phosphinoylation/cyclization protocol. The reaction utilizes K2S2O8 as oxidant and proceeds in DMSO/H2O at environmentally benign conditions with a broad substrate scope and

•  1a). Besides, in 2016 Li’s group [28] reported a silver-catalyzed straightforward approach for the synthesis of phosphonate-functionalized chroman-4-ones via a phosphoryl radical-initiated cascade cyclization of 2-(allyloxy)arylaldehydes using K2S2O8 as an oxidant, however, diphenylphosphine oxide

• employing 2-(allyloxy)benzaldehyde (1a) and diphenylphosphine oxide (DPPO, 2a) as the model substrates with K2S2O8 as the oxidant, which is a cheap, readily available, and versatile oxidant. On the basis of literature reports [29][30] and our continuing interest in green chemistry [31][32], we set the

When metal-catalyzed C–H functionalization meets visible-light photocatalysis

• Lucas Guillemard and
• Joanna Wencel-Delord

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1754–1804, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.147

• a mild and efficient protocol for the remote C4–H sulfonylation of 1-naphthylamine derivatives with sodium sulfinates in the presence of K2S2O8 as the oxidant (Figure 35) [99]. This strategy was based on the use of a bidentate picolinamide DG promoting the direct C–H functionalization of the

• the naphthyl ring after an intramolecular electron transfer. In the meantime, the sulfonyl radical is generated by oxidation of the sulfinate substrate via the photocatalytic cycle with the Ru(bpy)3 catalyst and K2S2O8 (the direct oxidation of sulfinate by persulfate could also be envisioned

Photocatalyzed syntheses of phenanthrenes and their aza-analogues. A review

• Alessandra Del Tito,
• Havall Othman Abdulla,
• Davide Ravelli,
• Stefano Protti and
• Maurizio Fagnoni

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1476–1488, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.123

• –C bonds gave P(=O)Ph2-containing phenanthridines 7.5a–c (Scheme 7, path c), which occurred in the presence of a base (CsF or Cs2CO3) and an external oxidant (K2S2O8). Notably, the presence of electron-withdrawing groups on the biphenyl unit inhibited the process in some instances [67]. Starting from

Oxime radicals: generation, properties and application in organic synthesis

• Igor B. Krylov,
• Stanislav A. Paveliev,
• Alexander S. Budnikov and
• Alexander O. Terent’ev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1234–1276, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.107

• nitrones (products 150a–d). A similar cyanation reaction was realized using TMSCN as a cyanide source and the oxidative system Cu(NO3)2/K2S2O8 (Scheme 51) [140]. Both aromatic (products 152a–c) and aliphatic (products 152d–f) β,γ-unsaturated oximes undergo this transformation. Oximes substituted at the α

Cascade trifluoromethylthiolation and cyclization of N-[(3-aryl)propioloyl]indoles

• Ming-Xi Bi,
• Shuai Liu,
• Yangen Huang,
• Xiu-Hua Xu and
• Feng-Ling Qing

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 657–662, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.62

• surprise, the reaction of 1a and AgSCF3 in the presence of K2S2O8 and KHCO3 in DMSO at 80 °C gave bis(trifluoromethylthiolated) product 2a in 28% yield (Table 1, entry 1). Only trace of mono(trifluoromethylthiolated) product was detected, and most of the substrate 1a was not converted. To the best of our

• knowledge, the combination of bis(trifluoromethylthiolation) [36][39][40][41] and cascade cyclization reactions has not been reported before. Thus, the amounts of AgSCF3 and K2S2O8 were increased to deliver 2a in 52% yield (Table 1, entry 2). Other oxidants including Na2S2O8 and (NH4)2S2O8 afforded 2a in

Construction of trisubstituted chromone skeletons carrying electron-withdrawing groups via PhIO-mediated dehydrogenation and its application to the synthesis of frutinone A

• Qiao Li,
• Chen Zhuang,
• Donghua Wang,
• Wei Zhang,
• Rongxuan Jia,
• Fengxia Sun,
• Yilin Zhang and
• Yunfei Du

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2958–2965, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.291

• = 5.3 nM) properties [90][91][92]. Treating the obtained chromene-3-carboxylate 2l with LiOH [93] led to the formation of the chromene-3-carboxylic acid G. Heating compound G overnight in the presence of AgNO3 and K2S2O8 afforded frutinone A in an isolated yield of 45% (Scheme 5). Conclusion In summary