Photomechanochemistry: harnessing mechanical forces to enhance photochemical reactions

• Francesco Mele,
• Ana M. Constantin,
• Andrea Porcheddu,
• Raimondo Maggi,
• Giovanni Maestri,
• Nicola Della Ca’ and
• Luca Capaldo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 458–472, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.33

• : the authors termed this approach “mechanochemically-assisted solid-state photocatalysis” (Scheme 7) [70]. Therein, a custom-built photoreactor was integrated into a standard laboratory ball mill apparatus. This reactor, equipped with blue LEDs, allowed for adjustable light intensity and maintained

• (9.1) (Scheme 9) [75]. In this case the authors used a ball-mill reactor equipped with a blue LED, and the reaction was run in a glass vial with two transparent PMMA balls. The authors noted that fluorination of the vial and the use of silica gel to adjust texture were needed to prevent reagent

• either the syn or the anti products, and found that the bond-forming event leading to the former can occur at lower applied forces. In the same year, Borchardt reported the first use of a ball mill with UV light for Mallory and cyclodehydrochlorination reactions (Scheme 10) [76]. The authors proposed a

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

• compounds [35][36][37][38]. Notably, also sterically hindered alcohols, which are typically less reactive in solution, could be applied under solvent-free conditions in a ball mill [39], which was attributed to a better accessibility of the difluorocarbene in the mechanochemical environment [40]. Motivated

Stereoselective mechanochemical synthesis of thiomalonate Michael adducts via iminium catalysis by chiral primary amines

• Michał Błauciak,
• Dominika Andrzejczyk,
• Błażej Dziuk and
• Rafał Kowalczyk

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2313–2322, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.198

• . Mild enolization of thioesters allows for the generation of Michael adducts with good yields and stereoselectivities. Reactions in a ball mill afford product formation with similar efficacy to solution-phase reactions but with slightly reduced enantioselectivity, yet they yield products in just one

• [15][16] or iminium-ion catalysis [17] under ball-mill conditions are scarce, in contrast to the abundance of transformations catalyzed by such covalent catalysis. Among the numerous organocatalytic reactions facilitated by primary amine-based iminium ions, Michael-type additions deserve special

• supported moreover by the local pressure increase. Albeit the transformation performed in the planetary ball mill required 20 h to proceed, the same reaction in the mixer mill offering the greater energy impact by the rise of mixing frequency led to the product after 1 hour with an acceptable yield of

Green and sustainable approaches for the Friedel–Crafts reaction between aldehydes and indoles

• Periklis X. Kolagkis,
• Eirini M. Galathri and
• Christoforos G. Kokotos

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 379–426, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.36

C–H bond functionalization: recent discoveries and future directions

• Indranil Chatterjee

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1568–1569, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.114

• techniques. Some energy-economic reactors such as ball mill, microwave, ultrasound and, most importantly, flow reactors have also evolved towards a more sustainable future. To showcase the modern approaches in this domain, this thematic issue in the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry gathers recent

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

• been shown to be active in a variety of reduction/hydrogenation transformations employing dihydrogen as terminal reducing agent. Keywords: ball mill; bifunctional catalysis; catalytic hydrogenations; copper; mechanochemical synthesis; N-heterocyclic carbenes; Introduction Prominent goals of green

• ball mill was discovered (Scheme 1e) [44]. The possibility of synthesizing copper(I)/NHC complexes in the ball mill is promising due to the avoidance of organic solvents. Direct approaches from the NHC-precursor to the copper(I)/NHC complex not undergoing the transmetallation step have been disclosed

Preparation of β-cyclodextrin/polysaccharide foams using saponin

• Max Petitjean and
• José Ramón Isasi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 78–88, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.7

• explained in this section (sample 45Liq*). The matrices formed were then crushed during 30 seconds in a Retsch MM300 ball mill. Saponin solutions: The foamability of Quillaja saponin was measured by dissolving different concentrations of saponin into deionized water (from 0.05 to 1%). Then, 20 mL of the

Mechanochemical synthesis of unsymmetrical salens for the preparation of Co–salen complexes and their evaluation as catalysts for the synthesis of α-aryloxy alcohols via asymmetric phenolic kinetic resolution of terminal epoxides

• Shengli Zuo,
• Shuxiang Zheng,
• Jianjun Liu and
• Ang Zuo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1416–1423, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.147

• peak at around 13 ppm was assigned to the phenolic OH groups. The signal at around 1615 cm−1 in the IR spectrum could also indicate the formation of imine (see Supporting Information File 1). In addition to the use of grinding technology, a self-made ball mill was applied to the synthesis of

• unsymmetrical salens by us. The method and its principle were described previously [43][44][45]. Ball mill systems have several advantages including superior mixing, continuous operation, and enclosed reaction environment. Our ball mill system was designed to mount a 40 mL glass reactor with zirconia and/or

Polymer and small molecule mechanochemistry: closer than ever

• José G. Hernández

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1225–1235, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.128

• ball mill (Figure 1c) enhances the depolymerization of acid-impregnated chitin more selectively towards glycosidic bond cleavage (i.e., backbone rupture) over amide bond breakage (i.e., deacetylation) [38][45]. Notably, the result is different for the reaction in solution, where scission of both bonds

• influenced by tensile forces. In contrast, compressive forces in the same direction as the collision less strongly activate the chemical bonds, but the large number of this type of collisions in a planetary ball mill (Figure 1c) can add up and provide compressive forces large enough for the activation of

• the covalent capsule 5 (made from resorcinarene caps connected by four dihydrazone units of ʟ-cysteine) with C60 and C70 fullerenes upon neat ball milling in a planetary ball mill (Figure 6). The mechanochemical complexation is remarkable since the porous capsule does not possess large enough openings

Mechanochemical bottom-up synthesis of phosphorus-linked, heptazine-based carbon nitrides using sodium phosphide

• Blaine G. Fiss,
• Georgia Douglas,
• Michael Ferguson,
• Jorge Becerra,
• Jesus Valdez,
• Trong-On Do,
• Tomislav Friščić and
• Audrey Moores

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1203–1209, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.125

• vibrational ball mill and milled at 30 Hz for 90 minutes under an argon atmosphere (Scheme 1b). As trichloroheptazine was not readily available commercially, it was synthesized from melem in three steps following a known procedure (see Supporting Information File 1 for the detailed procedure) [4]. The milled

Palladium-catalyzed solid-state borylation of aryl halides using mechanochemistry

• Koji Kubota,
• Emiru Baba,
• Tamae Seo,
• Tatsuo Ishiyama and
• Hajime Ito

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 855–862, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.86

• ). The reactions were conducted in a Retch MM400 ball mill in a stainless-steel milling jar (1.5 mL) at 30 Hz using one stainless-steel ball (diameter: 5 mm) for 10 min. We used a commercially available temperature-controllable heat gun that was placed directly above the ball-milling jar to control the

• high yields. Notably, all experimental operations could be performed in air, and did not require the use of large amounts of dry and degassed organic solvents. The utility of this method was further demonstrated by gram-scale synthesis under solvent-free, mechanochemical conditions. Keywords: ball

• mill; borylation; cross-coupling; mechanochemistry; solid-state reaction; Introduction Arylboronic acid and its derivatives are indispensable reagents in modern synthetic chemistry because they have been frequently used for the preparation of many bioactive molecules, natural products, and functional

Complementarity of solution and solid state mechanochemical reaction conditions demonstrated by 1,2-debromination of tricyclic imides

• Petar Štrbac and
• Davor Margetić

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 746–753, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.75

• conditions (temperature) and the inability to control the elimination process [17]. The objective of this work was to establish whether the 1,2-debromination with the Zn/Ag couple could be carried out under solvent-free conditions in a ball mill and whether the tedious Zn/Ag couple preparation procedure [18

• solution, only THF side-product 12 was obtained). Interestingly, small amounts of THF (used for LAG) were not detrimental for the reaction outcome in ball mill. The bicyclo[2.2.2] system Besides the bicyclo[2.2.1] system (7-oxa or 7-methano), the reactivity of the bicyclo[2.2.2] moiety was investigated

• . Dibromide 42 was prepared by Diels−Alder reaction of anthracene (13) and 2,3-dibromo-N-methylmaleimide (41) (Scheme 3). Heating of the reactants at 180 °C for 10 min provided the required cycloadduct 42 (98% yield). When 42 was subjected to Zn/Cu debromination in a ball mill in the presence of anthracene

Mechanochemical halogenation of unsymmetrically substituted azobenzenes

• Dajana Barišić,
• Mario Pajić,
• Ivan Halasz,
• Darko Babić and
• Manda Ćurić

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 680–687, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.69

• using N-halosuccinimides as the halogen source under neat grinding or liquid-assisted grinding conditions in a ball mill has been described. Depending on the azobenzene substrate used, halogenation of the C–H bonds occurs in the absence or only in the presence of PdII catalysts. Insight into the

• ][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46], their application in the synthesis of halogenated arenes is still scarce. In 2015, Bolm and Hernandez reported the halogenation of 2-phenylpyridine in a ball mill using [Cp*RhCl2]2 in combination with AgSbF6 as catalyst and N

• -bromosuccinimide (NBS) under neat grinding (NG) and liquid-assisted grinding (LAG) conditions in a ball mill [51]. Insight into the dynamics of the formation of reaction intermediates and products was obtained by in situ Raman monitoring that provided information on the nature of the catalytically active PdII

DDQ in mechanochemical C–N coupling reactions

• Shyamal Kanti Bera,
• Rosalin Bhanja and
• Prasenjit Mal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 639–646, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.64

• . Keywords: ball mill; 1H-benzo[d]imidazole; C(sp2)–H amidation; DDQ; mechanochemistry; quinazolin-4(3H)-one; Introduction The reawakening approaches to use solvent-free and environmentally benign conditions in organic synthesis have facilitated new opportunities [1][2][3][4]. The research area of

Multi-faceted reactivity of N-fluorobenzenesulfonimide (NFSI) under mechanochemical conditions: fluorination, fluorodemethylation, sulfonylation, and amidation reactions

• José G. Hernández,
• Karen J. Ardila-Fierro,
• Dajana Barišić and
• Hervé Geneste

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 182–189, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.20

• solution, the mechanochemical reactions were accomplished in the absence of solvents, in short reaction times, and in yields comparable to or higher than their solvent-based counterparts. Keywords: amidation; ball mill; fluorination; in situ monitoring; mechanochemistry; NFSI; Raman monitoring

N-Sulfinylpyrrolidine-containing ureas and thioureas as bifunctional organocatalysts

• Viera Poláčková,
• Dominika Krištofíková,
• Boglárka Némethová,
• Renata Górová,
• Mária Mečiarová and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2629–2641, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.176

• (10 mol %) as the base, respectively, afforded adduct 8a in 71 and 75% yield, with diastereoselectivity of 60:40 and 62:38 and in a racemic form (Table 3, entries 9 and 10). Only traces of adduct 8a were detected in the reaction mixture when the reaction in the ball mill was carried out without any

• exclusively by using the ball-mill method. The Michael addition was carried out in the presence of Et3N as the base and provided only 32% yield of the product with low diastereoselectivity and enantioselectivity (Table 4, entry 1). The aliphatic aldehyde 6b with 4-methoxy-β-nitrostyrene (7b) gave the Michael

• and 71:29 dr and 33:67 er, respectively. A higher catalyst loading of 5 mol % under solvent-free stirring gave 67% yield and 55:45 dr and 50:50 er (Table 4, entries 2–4). Hexanal (6b) also reacted successfully with 4-fluoro-β-nitrostyrene (7c) and gave the product 8d under solvent-free and ball-mill

A straightforward conversion of 1,4-quinones into polycyclic pyrazoles via [3 + 2]-cycloaddition with fluorinated nitrile imines

• Greta Utecht-Jarzyńska,
• Karolina Nagła,
• Grzegorz Mlostoń,
• Heinz Heimgartner,
• Marcin Palusiak and
• Marcin Jasiński

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1509–1517, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.108

• , completion of these reactions was practically impossible. On the other hand, the ball mill approach provided the target material after a significantly shorter reaction time (3 h instead of 2 d). Based on the optimized protocol, a series of cycloadditions with nitrile imines 7 was carried out using 1a (Scheme

Particle size effect in the mechanically assisted synthesis of β-cyclodextrin mesitylene sulfonate

• Stéphane Menuel,
• Sébastien Saitzek,
• Eric Monflier and
• Frédéric Hapiot

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2598–2606, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.211

• of a reaction in the solid state. As such, we recently investigated the influence of the particle size of β-CD in the synthesis of β-CD mesitylene sulfonate (β-CDMts) in the solid state using a vibrating ball-mill. We were particularly interested in the role of the particle size on the kinetics of

The B & B approach: Ball-milling conjugation of dextran with phenylboronic acid (PBA)-functionalized BODIPY

• Patrizia Andreozzi,
• Lorenza Tamberi,
• Elisamaria Tasca,
• Gina Elena Giacomazzo,
• Marta Martinez,
• Mirko Severi,
• Marco Marradi,
• Stefano Cicchi,
• Sergio Moya,
• Giacomo Biagiotti and
• Barbara Richichi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2272–2281, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.188

• coefficient of PBA-BODIPY which was evaluated in DMSO (see Supporting Information File 1, Figure S1). Figure 2A shows the amount of unreacted 1 recovered either from the serial ethanol washing solutions or from the DMSO/EtOH mixtures related to the solution-based (red bars, Figure 2A) and ball mill (blue bars

• ) in the conventional approach was higher compared to the ball billing approach (Figure 2A). The yield of both, solution-based and ball mill conjugations was monitored by measuring the absorption of the conjugates (λmax = 508–511 nm) and the relative amount of conjugated PBA-BODIPY (1) was calculated

• eight times higher compared to Dex-1a (0.98 and 0.12 mg/g, respectively). These results demonstrated that the ball-milling approach provides a higher degree of functionalization, with a loading almost three times higher in the ball mill compared to conventional solution synthesis. In addition the ball

Mechanochemical green synthesis of hyper-crosslinked cyclodextrin polymers

• Alberto Rubin Pedrazzo,
• Fabrizio Caldera,
• Marco Zanetti,
• Silvia Lucia Appleton,
• Nilesh Kumar Dhakar and
• Francesco Trotta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1554–1563, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.127

• modifications of starch using ball milling have been reported. These included esterifications and etherifications of starch [19] and cellulose [20]. In 2017, Jicsinszky et al. obtained CD derivatives through a solid-state reaction, using a planetary ball mill [21][22] and by other green processes [23]. The main

• . The solubility in various common solvents (water, acetone, ethanol, N,N-dimethylformamide or dimethyl sulfoxide, diethyl ether, and petroleum ether) of the new nanosponges was tested. Like nanosponges obtained from batch experiments, also the ones from ball-mill synthesis, as expected, were insoluble

• in the tested solvents, in accordance with the formation of a crosslinked network and with data from previous literature [9]. Figure 1 reports FTIR spectra of the cyclodextrin NS, with a comparison between βNS-CDI 1:4 obtained through ball-mill synthesis and βNS-CDI 1:4 from synthesis in DMF and a

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

A systematic review on silica-, carbon-, and magnetic materials-supported copper species as efficient heterogeneous nanocatalysts in “click” reactions

• Pezhman Shiri and
• Jasem Aboonajmi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 551–586, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.52

Six-fold C–H borylation of hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene

• Mai Nagase,
• Kenta Kato,
• Akiko Yagi,
• Yasutomo Segawa and
• Kenichiro Itami

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 391–397, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.37

• borylation of unsubstituted HBC. HBC was pulverized by a ball mill prior to use. First, we attempted the iridium catalyst and reagents that we have reported as the suitable C–H borylation conditions for warped nanographene: [Ir(OMe)cod]2, 3,4,7,8-tetramethyl-1,10-phenanthroline (tmphen), HBpin (Bpin: 4,4,5,5

Metal-free mechanochemical oxidations in Ertalyte^® jars

• Andrea Porcheddu,
• Francesco Delogu,
• Lidia De Luca,
• Claudia Fattuoni and
• Evelina Colacino

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1786–1794, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.172

• . In particular, in this study, we used sodium hypochlorite pentahydrate (NaOCl·5H2O) in the presence of a catalytic amount of a nitrosyl radical (TEMPO or AZADO) to induce mechanochemical oxidation reactions on suitably selected primary and secondary alcohols. Performed in a high-energy ball mill and

Reaction of oxiranes with cyclodextrins under high-energy ball-milling conditions

• László Jicsinszky,
• Federica Calsolaro,
• Katia Martina,
• Fabio Bucciol,
• Maela Manzoli and
• Giancarlo Cravotto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1448–1459, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.145

• derivatisation method that uses low-boiling epoxide reagents in a high-energy ball mill (HEBM). The simplified preparation and purification of low substitution-degree common (2-hydroxy)propylated β- and γ-cyclodextrins (β/γ-CDs) has been realised. The intelligent use of propylene oxide has also facilitated the

• more effective synthesis of highly substituted γ-CD. Epichlorohydrin-crosslinked CD-polymers (CDPs) have also been effectively prepared in the ball mill. The unoptimised preparations of soluble and insoluble CDPs displayed very small particle size distributions, while the prepared polymers currently

• have different complexation properties to those of their classically prepared analogues. Keywords: crosslinked cyclodextrin polymers; (2-hydroxy)propylcyclodextrin; mechanochemistry; nucleophile reaction; planetary ball mill; solventless synthesis; Introduction The derivatisation of natural