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

• -workers (2019) reported an enantioselective esterification via oxidative N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC)-catalyzed phthalaldehyde activation to form azolium ester intermediate 147 to give the chiral phthalidyl ester 146 with excellent enantiomeric ratio (Scheme 45B) [85]. Additionally, the reaction capacity

• based on C–C bond activations have been explored. For instance, Ravikumar and co-workers (2021) employed diphenylcyclopropenone (309) to synthesize the corresponding esters 310–313 and amides 314 and 315. The reaction was catalyzed by Pd/N-heterocyclic carbene via oxidative Pd insertion into the C–C

Recent total synthesis of natural products leveraging a strategy of enamide cyclization

• Chun-Yu Mi,
• Jia-Yuan Zhai and
• Xiao-Ming Zhang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 999–1009, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.81

• was utilized to transform enamine 18 and propargyl ester 19 into 1-azaspiro[4.4]nonane 20 with high diastereoselectivity. Notably, the combination of an N-heterocyclic carbene gold catalyst and a silver salt AgSbF6 was found to be essential in guaranteeing the reactivity of the alkyne partner

Origami with small molecules: exploiting the C–F bond as a conformational tool

• Patrick Ryan,
• Ramsha Iftikhar and
• Luke Hunter

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 680–716, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.54

Recent advances in allylation of chiral secondary alkylcopper species

• Minjae Kim,
• Gwanggyun Kim,
• Doyoon Kim,
• Jun Hee Lee and
• Seung Hwan Cho

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 639–658, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.51

• their exploration of phosphoramidite ligands with various organometallic nucleophiles [24][25]. The field was further advanced by the research group of Hoveyda, who made substantial contributions by introducing bidentate N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC)-based chiral ligands, achieving high selectivity with

Organocatalytic kinetic resolution of 1,5-dicarbonyl compounds through a retro-Michael reaction

• James Guevara-Pulido,
• Fernando González-Pérez,
• José M. Andrés and
• Rafael Pedrosa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 473–482, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.34

• processes with low catalyst loading. It involves the kinetic resolution of alcohols, amines, and esters using chiral phosphoric acids [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] and sulfoximines with enals using chiral N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) catalysts [14]. Additionally, these processes have been conducted using

Red light excitation: illuminating photocatalysis in a new spectrum

• Lucas Fortier,
• Corentin Lefebvre and
• Norbert Hoffmann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 296–326, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.22

• acetone, allowing the pre-activation of the ruthenium complex with the successive release of an N-heterocyclic carbene ligand and a chlorine atom, which are replaced by two acetone molecules to form compound 2. Simultaneously, excitation of the osmium(II) complex in the red region (660 nm) decreases its

Recent advances in organocatalytic atroposelective reactions

• Henrich Szabados and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 55–121, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.6

• organocatalytic reactions are discussed according to the dominant catalyst activation mode. For covalent organocatalysis, the typical enamine and iminium modes are presented, followed by N-heterocyclic carbene-catalyzed reactions. The bulk of the review is devoted to non-covalent activation, where chiral Brønsted

Mechanochemical difluoromethylations of ketones

• Jinbo Ke,
• Pit van Bonn and
• Carsten Bolm

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2799–2805, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.235

• -depleting sulfur dioxide as side products [46][47]. Later, Ichikawa and co-workers established the release of difluorocarbene from TFDA with catalytic amounts of an N-heterocyclic carbene and a base (Scheme 1C) [29][48][49]. In these reactions, difluoromethyl enol ethers were obtained, which were

5th International Symposium on Synthesis and Catalysis (ISySyCat2023)

• Anthony J. Burke and
• Elisabete P. Carreiro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2704–2707, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.227

• Suzuki couplings and the reduction of the thiazole moiety to 2,3-dihydro[1,3]thiazolo[4,5-b]pyridines, a crucial intermediate, using BH3⋅NH3 and tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane as a Lewis acid, followed by treatment with formic acid. Gillie et al. reported the synthesis of a laterally fused N-heterocyclic

• carbene (NHC) framework from polysubstituted aminoimidazo[5,1-b]oxazol-6-ium salts, which demonstrated strong catalytic activity in gold-catalyzed alkyne hydration and arylative cyclization reactions [14]. The synthesis of this new carbene involved the use of a novel nitrenoid reagent that was

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

• phenanthridines via silver-catalyzed radical sulfonylation–cyclization of 2-isocyanobiphenyls (Scheme 25) [98]. Wang et al. reported a radical borylative cyclization of 2-isocyanobiaryls with N-heterocyclic carbene borane (Scheme 26) [99]. The boryl radical generated via hydrogen abstraction in the presence of di

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

• reaction. AlCl3-mediated Cannizzaro disproportionation of aldehydes. Ru–N-heterocyclic carbene catalyzed dehydrogenative synthesis of carboxylic acids. Intramolecular desymmetrization of tetraethylene glycol. Desymmetrization of oligoethylene glycol dialdehydes. Intramolecular Cannizzaro reaction of calix

Manganese-catalyzed C–C and C–N bond formation with alcohols via borrowing hydrogen or hydrogen auto-transfer

• Mohd Farhan Ansari,
• Atul Kumar Maurya,
• Abhishek Kumar and
• Saravanakumar Elangovan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1111–1166, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.98

• mechanism suggested that dearomatization–aromatization pathways operated for the dehydrogenation of the alcohol and C–C bond formations. After the successful attempt of bidentate N-heterocyclic carbene-manganese complex-catalyzed N-alkylation of amines with alcohols at room temperature [41], Liu and Ke's

• ]. Under optimized conditions (2 mol % Mn(CO)5Br, 10 mol % t-BuOK, t-AmOH, argon atmosphere), various quinoline derivatives were successfully synthesized with this protocol (Scheme 71). In 2019, Liu et al. used a bis-N-heterocyclic carbene-supported manganese complex for quinoline synthesis by coupling

A laterally-fused N-heterocyclic carbene framework from polysubstituted aminoimidazo[5,1-b]oxazol-6-ium salts

• Andrew D. Gillie,
• Matthew G. Wakeling,
• Bethan L. Greene,
• Louise Male and
• Paul W. Davies

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 621–627, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.54

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

• , accompanied by the formation of cyano-B(pin) 142. Importantly, in the absence of ZnCl2, intermediate 140 could be detected by HRMS and 11B NMR, highlighting the pivotal role of ZnCl2 in promoting rearomatization. N-Heterocyclic carbene (NHC) catalysis In 2019, Nagao and Ohmiya reported the decarboxylative

• overview of the diverse mechanisms that have been proposed for radical based transformations initiating from NHPI esters. The discussion is organized into four sections: (i) mechanisms under photochemical conditions, (ii) initiation by metal catalysis and stoichiometric reductants, (iii) N-heterocyclic

• carbene (NHC)-catalyzed radical relay, and (iv) mechanisms under electrochemical activation. By discussing selected literature examples, we illustrate how the activation mode of NHPI esters, and the reactivity of the resulting radical species, can vary depending upon the choice of catalytic or

Active-metal template clipping synthesis of novel [2]rotaxanes

• Cătălin C. Anghel,
• Teodor A. Cucuiet,
• Niculina D. Hădade and
• Ion Grosu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1776–1784, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.130

• molecule which catalyzes the macrocyclization reaction around the axle (Figure 1b). Results and Discussion In order to access the target [2]rotaxanes we made use of the CuAAC reaction, performed in the presence of a copper(I) N-heterocyclic carbene, a very stable and efficient class of catalysts used in

• active-metal template and clipping methods to yield the target interlocked molecules via [1 + 1] or intramolecular macrocyclizations, realized through CuAAC reactions catalyzed by axle-copper(I) N-heterocyclic carbene complexes. The [2]rotaxane obtained by [1 + 1] clipping (R1) could be only observed by

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

• diaminocarbene complex 32 and diamidocarbene (DAC) complex 33. The mononuclear N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC)–copper alkoxide complexes [(6-NHC)CuOt-Bu] (6-NHC = 6-MesDAC (30), 6-Mes (31)) were prepared by the addition of free carbenes to the tetrameric tert-butoxide precursor [Cu(Ot-Bu)]4, or by protonolysis of

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

• with a bulky N-heterocyclic carbene ligand and (2,6-t-Bu2-4-Me-C6H2O)2AlMe (MAD) as the Lewis acid which allowed the direct C-4 alkylation of pyridines 1 (Scheme 12a). With the optimized reaction conditions in hand the group also screened the alkene and pyridine substrate scope which resulted C4

• oxidized by Cu(II) to complete the catalytic cycle. Next, considering the role of N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands acting as directing group as well as functionalizing unit in arene C–H functionalization reactions with alkynes, Choudhury and group [106] in 2015 developed a protocol for the

• intermolecular C–H annulation of NHC-substituted pyridines with a variety of internal alkynes 187 under rhodium catalysis for the synthesis of annulated and highly decorated pyridines 188 (Scheme 36). The authors used the N-heterocyclic carbene ligand as directing group to prepare imidazo[1,2-a][1,6

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

• , which begins with a Cu-catalyzed enantioselective conjugate addition/enolate alkylation tandem reaction sequence utilizing the N-heterocyclic carbene ligand L40 [112]. Ketone 232 was isolated in 61% yield and 81% ee. Hereafter, the authors were able to synthesize the complex tetracyclic structure within

Mechanochemical solid state synthesis of copper(I)/NHC complexes with K₃PO₄

• Ina Remy-Speckmann,
• Birte M. Zimmermann,
• Mahadeb Gorai,
• Martin Lerch and
• Johannes F. Teichert

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 440–447, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.34

• , Germany 10.3762/bjoc.19.34 Abstract A protocol for the mechanochemical synthesis of copper(I)/N-heterocyclic carbene complexes using cheap and readily available K3PO4 as base has been developed. This method employing a ball mill is amenable to typical simple copper(I)/NHC complexes but also to a

• sophisticated copper(I)/N-heterocyclic carbene complex bearing a guanidine moiety. In this way, the present approach circumvents commonly employed silver(I) complexes which are associated with significant and undesired waste formation and the excessive use of solvents. The resulting bifunctional catalyst has

• focus has seldomly been on the preparative methods to access the required catalysts themselves. As case in point, we decided to re-investigate the synthesis of copper(I)/N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) complexes, which are broadly applicable catalysts for a wide variety of transformations [4][5][6]. While

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

• /B‒H exchange [114]. Hevia reported a combination of a tris(alkyl)gallium species and bulky N-heterocyclic carbene acted as an FLP for B‒H insertion, and was used subsequently as a catalyst in the hydroboration of ketones, aldehydes, esters, and imines with HBpin [115]. Using an ONO-pincer-supported

Redox-active molecules as organocatalysts for selective oxidative transformations – an unperceived organocatalysis field

• Elena R. Lopat’eva,
• Igor B. Krylov,
• Dmitry A. Lapshin and
• Alexander O. Terent’ev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1672–1695, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.179

• addition to the electron-rich C=C bond [58] or proton loss followed by β-functionalization [59][60][61]. The iminium cation catalysis is used in the activation of electrophilic properties of enones for the nucleophilic epoxidation by hydroperoxides (Scheme 2B). N-Heterocyclic carbene (NHC) organocatalysis

• -organocatalysts. Organocatalysis classification used in the present perspective. Oxidative processes catalyzed by amines. N-Heterocyclic carbene (NHC) catalysis in oxidative functionalization of aldehydes. Examples of asymmetric oxidative processes catalyzed by chiral Brønsted acids. Asymmetric aerobic α

First example of organocatalysis by cathodic N-heterocyclic carbene generation and accumulation using a divided electrochemical flow cell

• Daniele Rocco,
• Ana A. Folgueiras-Amador,
• Richard C. D. Brown and
• Marta Feroci

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 979–990, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.98

• used as organocatalyst in two classical umpolung reactions of cinnamaldehyde: its cyclodimerization and its oxidative esterification. Keywords: Breslow intermediate; cathodic reduction; flow electrochemistry; N-heterocyclic carbene; oxidative esterification; Introduction Ionic liquids (ILs) are well

• can be modified by the presence of a base or by a single electron cathodic reduction of the C–H between nitrogen atoms of the imidazolium ring (Scheme 1), inducing the formation of a N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) [7][8]. In recent years, NHCs have achieved great success: they have been frequently used

• reduction of an imidazolium cation to NHC, in an undivided cell under flow conditions, coupled with the anodic generation of Cu(I) from a sacrificial anode to yield the corresponding N-heterocyclic carbene complex [34][35]. In this case, irreversible capture of the NHC by the metallic cation prevented NHC

A comprehensive review of flow chemistry techniques tailored to the flavours and fragrances industries

• Guido Gambacorta,
• James S. Sharley and
• Ian R. Baxendale

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1181–1312, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.90

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

• temperature (35 °C) but toxic CH2Cl2 solvent (Scheme 1). The reaction using second-generation N-heterocyclic carbene ligands was faster and preferably yielded cyclododecatriene. Larger cyclic butadienes may be used in the production of flame retardants, lubricants and specialty polymers [149][150]. 3.1.3

• electronic effect of the ligand [267]. A reaction mechanism for PLA depolymerisation was proposed, consisting of two consecutive first-order steps, in which Me-La production follows the formation of chain-end groups intermediates [265]. A zinc–N-heterocyclic carbene complex was used as catalysts for the

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

• 100 in good yields and enantioselectivities (21 examples for THCs, up to 98:2 er and 10 examples for THIQs, up to 98:2 er). N-Heterocyclic carbene catalysis N-Heterocyclic carbene (NHC) catalysis was first used in combination with photoredox catalysis by Rovis in 2012. They showed that iminium ions