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

• co-workers reported Cu-catalyzed asymmetric electrochemical regiodivergent cross-dehydrogenative coupling of Schiff bases and hydroquinones (Figure 9) [58]. In this approach, a chiral copper complex was used as a Lewis acid catalyst, yielding various synthetic routes for synthesizing chiral amino

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

• 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

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

• proceeded with more than 85% yield in all cases with clean conversion to the products (Scheme 10) [78]. The utility of neutral γ-alumina has been exploited as a polymeric Lewis acid catalyst in the Cannizzaro reaction of similar aromatic aldehydes 16. The conversion to the respective aromatic alcohols 17

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

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

• acid catalyst; thermal [2 + 2] cycloaddition; Introduction Chemical functionalization of fullerenes is a fascinating and extensively studied approach, playing a pivotal role in fullerene-based materials science to introduce various characteristic functionalities [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Significant

• experimental and theoretical approaches, we clarified the range of applicable substrates for the thermal [2 + 2] cycloaddition of Li+@C60, highlighting the expanded scope of this straightforward and selective functionalization method. Keywords: electron transfer; fullerene; ion-endohedral fullerene; Lewis

Mechanisms for radical reactions initiating from N-hydroxyphthalimide esters

• Carlos R. Azpilcueta-Nicolas and
• Jean-Philip Lumb

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 346–378, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.35

• oxyalkylation product 28. Li and co-workers described the activation of NHPI esters towards SET using a Lewis acid catalyst, allowing for the functionalization of styrene radical acceptors with nucleophiles that do not necessarily engage in hydrogen-bonding interactions, such as electron-rich (hetero)arenes [47

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

• efficient Lewis acid catalyst (Scheme 10) [50]. In the procedure, oxidative cleavage of one S–N bond and 1,2-sulfur migration afforded π-conjugated 6-substituted 2,3-diarylbenzo[b]thiophenes 16. A plausible mechanism is shown in Scheme 11. The coordination of AlCl3 with the phthalimide/succinimide unit of 1

• -thiolated pyrroles 61 and pyrrolines 62 from propargylic tosylamides 60 and N-thiosuccinimides 1 was described by Gao′s group (Scheme 25) [61]. When AlCl3 as the Lewis acid catalyst and nitromethane as the solvent were used, a series of 3-thiolated pyrrole products 61 were detected, and 3-thiolated

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

• of ethers to obtain symmetric and asymmetric 1,1-bis-indolylmethane derivatives (Scheme 23) [84]. The reaction proceeds through the tandem oxidative coupling of the C–O bond and cleavage of the C–H bond. Fe plays a dual role in catalysing the C–C bond coupling and C–O bond cleavage as Lewis acid

• catalyst. The authors demonstrated that the introduction of the two indoles occurs in two distinct steps, a radical process and a Friedel–Crafts alkylation reaction. Coumarin and flavonoid derivatives are very valuable precursors in drug synthesis. In 2015, Ge et al. developed the regioselective and atom

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

• system. Like the classical Friedel–Crafts reaction, the aza-Friedel–Crafts reaction also requires the presence of a Lewis acid catalyst for rate acceleration. The reaction can be very easily modulated by different Lewis acidic metallic compounds which effectively form a coordinate bond by accepting the

Clauson–Kaas pyrrole synthesis using diverse catalysts: a transition from conventional to greener approach

• Dileep Kumar Singh and
• Rajesh Kumar

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 928–955, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.71

• various substituted anilines, primary arylamides, and sufonylamides 20 and 2,5-DMTHF (2) in the presence of 10 mol % MgI2 etherate in MeCN at 80 °C (Scheme 9a). MgI2 etherate is a main-group Lewis acid catalyst that selectively activates electron-rich aromatic amines. This is a mild, efficient, and highly

• of N-substituted pyrroles using iron(III) chloride as a Lewis acid catalyst. These nitrogen-substituted pyrroles 33 were obtained in 74–98% yields by the reaction between various alkyl-, aryl-, sulfonyl- and aroylamines 32 with 2,5-DMTHF (2) in the presence of 2 mol % FeCl3∙7H2O as catalyst under H2O

• adjacent strong Lewis acid sites, and the acidity of these Lewis acid sites is due to the inductive effect of sulfate on the metallic cation. Therefore, this nano-sulfated titanium dioxide acts as a new type of Lewis acid catalyst. Intermediate A was first formed by reaction of the catalyst with 2,5-DMTHF

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

• nickel Lewis acid catalyst with amino pendant linked NHC complex (Scheme 21). In addition, the authors were able to isolate the bimetallic intermediate structure η2,η1-pyridine–Ni(0)–Al(III) complex 112, as a support for their mechanism for the para-C–H functionalization. They further investigated the

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

• analog 26 should also be a reactive dienophile [51], but is a less useful building block, as it reacts twice and the adducts will not be as easily desulfonylated. The dienophile 7 reacts with a wide range of dienes at room temperature, without the need for a Lewis acid catalyst. This is particularly

• give difficulties (Scheme 11a) [42]. The reactivity of the oxy-electrophiles can be enhanced by adding a Lewis acid catalyst such as titanium(IV) isopropoxide [59]. In this way, also epoxides can be smoothly reacted with lithiated dithiins, and both allyl and homoallyl alcohols can thus be prepared in

• alcohol 66 can be lithitated and reacted with a range of electrophiles, even without the need for a Lewis acid catalyst, and good levels of stereoinduction can be achieved. The method was used for the synthesis of a range of hexose sugars, as well as iminosugars (viz 66 → 67 → 68), wherein the piperidine

Catalytic aza-Nazarov cyclization reactions to access α-methylene-γ-lactam heterocycles

• Bilge Banu Yagci,
• Selin Ezgi Donmez,
• Onur Şahin and
• Yunus Emre Türkmen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 66–77, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.6

• using acyl chloride 6b with an isobutyl side chain is its low volatility in contrast to the highly volatile compound 6a. The aza-Nazarov product 7b was isolated in 61% yield with 20 mol % of AgOTf at 80 °C (Table 1, entry 5). The use of TMSOTf as a Si-based Lewis acid catalyst with 20 mol % loading

Dienophilic reactivity of 2-phosphaindolizines: a conceptual DFT investigation

• Nosheen Beig,
• Aarti Peswani and
• Raj Kumar Bansal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1217–1224, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.127

• acid catalyst, namely ethylaluminum dichloride [13]. Furthermore, when carrying out the reaction of compounds 1 (R1 = Me, R2 = COOMe, COOEt, COOCMe3) with DMB in the presence of the catalyst O-menthoxyaluminium dichloride, generated in situ, complete diastereoselectivity was observed. The DA reactions

• -phosphaindolizines having an EWG at the 3-position only, namely 3-ethoxycarbonyl-1-methyl-2-phosphaindolizine (1: R1 = Me, R2 = COOEt) did not undergo the DA reaction with DMB alone or in the presence of sulfur even when refluxing in toluene [12]. The reaction could be accomplished only in the presence of a Lewis

Electrochemical Friedel–Crafts-type amidomethylation of arenes by a novel electrochemical oxidation system using a quasi-divided cell and trialkylammonium tetrafluoroborate

• Hisanori Senboku,
• Mizuki Hayama and
• Hidetoshi Matsuno

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1040–1046, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.105

• : electrochemical oxidation of amides/carbamates yielding α-methoxylated amides/carbamates (Shono oxidation, path c in Scheme 1) followed by the reaction of the isolated α-methoxylated amides/carbamates with arenes in the presence of a Lewis acid catalyst (path e in Scheme 1) [16]. Although the use of CH2Cl2 as a

Synthesis of odorants in flow and their applications in perfumery

• Merlin Kleoff,
• Paul Kiler and
• Philipp Heretsch

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 754–768, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.76

• SAC-13, alkylation of m-cresol with isopropanol proceeds via a Friedel–Crafts-type mechanism in much lower selectivity. In contrast, the authors proposed that employing γ-Al2O3 as Lewis acid catalyst, reaction of 39 and isopropanol leads to isopropyl ether 40. This intermediate undergoes a Fries-type

α-Ketol and α-iminol rearrangements in synthetic organic and biosynthetic reactions

• Scott Benz and
• Andrew S. Murkin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2570–2584, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.172

• silyl ethers. Ooi et al. utilized an axially chiral organoaluminum Lewis acid catalyst (18) to convert a series of α,α-dialkyl-α-siloxyaldehydes 16 to α-siloxyketones 17 in high yields and >74% ee (Figure 5) [7]. This reaction is noteworthy for its tolerance of silyl protecting groups, which are

Methodologies for the synthesis of quaternary carbon centers via hydroalkylation of unactivated olefins: twenty years of advances

• Thiago S. Silva and
• Fernando Coelho

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1565–1590, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.112

Prins cyclization-mediated stereoselective synthesis of tetrahydropyrans and dihydropyrans: an inspection of twenty years

• Asha Budakoti,
• Pradip Kumar Mondal,
• Prachi Verma and
• Jagadish Khamrai

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 932–963, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.77

• THPs was exclusively generated via Prins reaction using FeCl3 as a Lewis acid catalyst. Excellent stereoselectivity was obtained for a remarkably broad range of substrates under mild reaction conditions (Scheme 64) [106]. The authors proposed fundamental insights into the mechanism of the reaction

Valorisation of plastic waste via metal-catalysed depolymerisation

• Francesca Liguori,
• Carmen Moreno-Marrodán and
• Pierluigi Barbaro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 589–621, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.53

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

• , Br, Scheme 63) [114]. In this transformation, BX3 played a dual role as both a Lewis acid catalyst and a source of the halide ion nucleophile. This reaction resulted in the generation of the trifluoromethyl ketones 145 and halodifluoromethyl ketones 146 and 147 in high yields. As in the previous

Three-component reactions of aromatic amines, 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds, and α-bromoacetaldehyde acetal to access N-(hetero)aryl-4,5-unsubstituted pyrroles

• Wenbo Huang,
• Kaimei Wang,
• Ping Liu,
• Minghao Li,
• Shaoyong Ke and
• Yanlong Gu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2920–2928, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.241

• -bromoacetaldehyde acetal by using aluminum(III) chloride as a Lewis acid catalyst through [1 + 2 + 2] annulation. This new versatile methodology provides a wide scope for the synthesis of different functional N-(hetero)aryl-4,5-unsubstituted pyrrole scaffolds, which can be further derived to access multisubstituted

Recent developments in enantioselective photocatalysis

• Callum Prentice,
• James Morrisson,
• Andrew D. Smith and
• Eli Zysman-Colman

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2363–2441, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.197

• complexation to the Lewis acid in RCA reactions, an auxiliary (Z) is required; this auxiliary can be easily removed and recovered. Shibasaki and Kumagai very recently developed a similar reaction using a copper Lewis acid catalyst and a different auxiliary containing amide 282 with α-silyl amines 277 to

•  46) [112]. The proposed mechanism involves a reductive quenching cycle using TEEDA as a sacrificial reductant to generate [Ru]•−. Simultaneously the chiral Lewis acid catalyst forms complex 286 with both starting materials. [Ru]•− then reduces the activated aldehyde to give ketyl radical anion 286

Heterogeneous photocatalysis in flow chemical reactors

• Christopher G. Thomson,
• Ai-Lan Lee and
• Filipe Vilela

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1495–1549, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.125

• to fuse samarium oxide nanoparticles to TiO2 and ceria (CeO2) as a bifunctional heterogeneous photoredox Lewis acid catalyst for reductive cyclisation reactions, previously reported with ruthenium transition metal complex photocatalysts [157]. Both electrochemical and photochemical deposition

A review of asymmetric synthetic organic electrochemistry and electrocatalysis: concepts, applications, recent developments and future directions

• Munmun Ghosh,
• Valmik S. Shinde and
• Magnus Rueping

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2710–2746, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.264

• chiral Co(II)-(R,R)salen complex 83 in DMF saturated with CO2 resulted in the formation of 84 in a low yield but with good enantioselectivity (Scheme 31). Very recently, Meggers research group described an application of an asymmetric Lewis acid catalyst using electricity to provide a synthetic route

• towards chiral 1,4-dicarbonyls bearing tertiary and all-carbon quaternary stereocenters via oxidative cross coupling of 2-acylimidazoles 85 with silyl enol ethers 86 (Scheme 32). Chiral Rh complex 87 was exploited as a Lewis acid catalyst for the purpose of activating the substrate towards anodic

• and his group developed an electrochemical strategy for the asymmetric alkylation of 2-acylimidazole derivatives 94 with substituted para-methylphenols 95 using Ni(OAc)2 as a Lewis acid catalyst in presence of chiral diamine ligand 96 (Scheme 34) [71]. Based on their detailed mechanistic studies, the