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

• further attacked by TBHP to give product 61. Benzyl alcohols 62 were also converted into tert-butyl perbenzoates 63 under the action of the TBAI/TBHP system (Scheme 22) [65][66]. During the process, TBHP oxidizes TBAI into iodine, which reacts with the second TBHP to generate tert-butylperoxy radical B

• , which is captured by TBHP. Pathway II: the recombination of the C-centered radical C and tert-butylperoxy radical B. The three-component approach to 4-(tert-butylperoxy)-5-phenyloxazol-2(3H)-ones 82 from benzyl alcohols 80 and isocyanates 81 using the Cu(II)/TBHP system was developed (Scheme 29) [76

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

• aliphatic alcohols, benzyl alcohols are also suitable reagents. Numerous LSF examples and upscaling were demonstrated. The mechanism involves two anodic oxidations: first, the thiophenol is oxidized at the anode, forming a sulfur radical that attacks the isocyanide. The newly formed carbon radical is then

Efficient one-step synthesis of diarylacetic acids by electrochemical direct carboxylation of diarylmethanol compounds in DMSO

• Hisanori Senboku and
• Mizuki Hayama

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2392–2400, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.203

• ][9][10][11], yielding phenylacetic acids. For example, Troupel et al. successfully performed electrochemical reduction of benzyl ethers and several esters such as acetate, trifluoroacetate, benzoate, and dibenzyl carbonate derived from benzyl alcohols, including 1-phenylethanol compounds, in the

• contrast, little attention has been paid to electrochemical direct carboxylation of benzyl alcohols, although it is a more straightforward and simple protocol toward phenylacetic acids. In 2015, we reported an electrochemical direct carboxylation of benzyl alcohols having an electron-withdrawing group on

• the phenyl ring [17]. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on electrochemical carboxylation of benzyl alcohols. Only benzyl alcohols having an electron-withdrawing group, such as cyano or ester in the ortho- or para-position of the phenyl ring, were efficiently carboxylated by

Catalysing (organo-)catalysis: Trends in the application of machine learning to enantioselective organocatalysis

• Stefan P. Schmid,
• Leon Schlosser,
• Frank Glorius and
• Kjell Jorner

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2280–2304, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.196

• enantioselectivities of a kinetic resolution of benzyl alcohols and an enantiodivergent fluorination of allylic alcohols, observing good correlations for both reactions. Since then, the proposed NCI descriptors have been successfully applied to multiple different reactions, such as an allenoate Claisen rearrangement

The Groebke–Blackburn–Bienaymé reaction in its maturity: innovation and improvements since its 21st birthday (2019–2023)

• Cristina Martini,
• Muhammad Idham Darussalam Mardjan and
• Andrea Basso

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1839–1879, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.162

• aldehydic component has been generated in situ through Fe3O4-mediated aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohols. Magnetic nanoparticles were supported by Shaabani and Farhid on spent coffee ground and served also as catalyst for the GBB reaction, although the role of coffee ground was not clearly explained [33

Oxidation of benzylic alcohols to carbonyls using N-heterocyclic stabilized λ³-iodanes

• Thomas J. Kuczmera,
• Pim Puylaert and
• Boris J. Nachtsheim

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1677–1683, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.149

• tetrazine salt 1c. Based on these results, the reaction conditions were further optimized using NHI 1a with the benzyl alcohols 3a (electron-rich) and 3b (electron-poor) as the model substrates. First, the reaction temperature was increased, finding 60 °C to be the optimal value in EtOAc (Table 1, entry 1

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

• alcohols and benzylic alcohols delivered fruitful results. However, the reaction of benzyl alcohols was found to proceed within shorter reaction times and much higher yields compared to aliphatic alcohols. This process presumably involves a Cannizzaro reaction during the conversion of the benzyl alcohols

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

• with a wide range of N-alkoxyphthalimides produced from benzyl alcohols. The protocol also allowed to use N-alkoxyphthalimides derived from aliphatic alcohols. However, the reaction was less facile with benzyl alcohols derived N-alkoxyphthalimides. The plausible mechanism starts with blue-light

• bond activation of benzyl alcohols. Deoxygenative arylation of alcohols using NHC to activate alcohols. Deoxygenative conjugate addition of alcohol using NHC as alcohol activator. Synthesis of polysubstituted aldehydes. Funding The author thanks SERB, India (CRG/2021/000402) for financial assistance.

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

• mol % t-BuOK, t-AmOH, argon atmosphere), various substituted ketones were selectively alkylated with benzyl alcohols as alkyl source and hydrogen donor at 140 °C for 24 h and afforded up to 98% yield of the C-alkylated products (Scheme 26). In addition, numerous substituted benzylic, aliphatic, and

• ) as a base in toluene at 140 °C for 36 h that gave up to 84% yield (Scheme 29A). More interestingly, double alkylation also occurred in one pot using acetophenone and 4-methoxyacetophenone with different benzyl alcohols under the optimized conditions. In the first step, monoalkylation of the methyl

• afforded the α-alkylated product with 96% yield. Under the optimized catalytic conditions, various substituted alcohols were investigated with acetophenone, which gave good to excellent yields of the alkylated products (Scheme 38). The scope of ketones was also tested with benzyl alcohols, which gave

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

• presence of TMSOTf. Catalyst-free sulfenylation by N-(sulfenyl)succinimides/phthalimides In 2015, oxysulfenylation of styrene derivatives 9 utilizing 1-(arylthio)pyrrolidine-2,5-diones 1 and alkyl/benzyl alcohols 86 toward β-alkoxy sulfides was developed by Fu et al. (Scheme 65) [95]. In this metal-free

Honeycomb reactor: a promising device for streamlining aerobic oxidation under continuous-flow conditions

• Masahiro Hosoya,
• Yusuke Saito and
• Yousuke Horiuchi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 752–763, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.55

• structure raised the mixing efficiency of a gas–liquid reaction system, and it effectively accelerated the aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohols to benzaldehydes under continuous-flow conditions. This reactor is a promising device for streamlining aerobic oxidation with high process safety because it is a

• closed system. Keywords: aerobic oxidation; benzaldehydes; benzyl alcohols; homogeneous catalyst; honeycomb reactor; Introduction Oxidation plays a key role in synthesizing highly functionalized molecules [1][2]. While Jones oxidation [3] and oxidation using KMnO4 [4] are classical and powerful methods

• ], and its screening results can be transferred to obtain a wide variety of benzaldehydes from benzyl alcohols. The screening was conducted under batch conditions. Toward its application to continuous-flow synthesis, we considered the description of the reaction mixture as well as the reaction rate

Two-step continuous-flow synthesis of 6-membered cyclic iodonium salts via anodic oxidation

• Julian Spils,
• Thomas Wirth and
• Boris J. Nachtsheim

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 27–32, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.2

• , we improved the formation of iodoarenes through a Brønsted acid-mediated Friedel–Crafts reaction followed by an oxidative cyclization to form the desired CDIS 1 (Scheme 1A). This one-pot approach is based on ortho-iodinated benzyl alcohols as starting materials. It allows access to a variety of

• resulted in the formation of insoluble intermediary iodoarenes. Derivatizing the benzylic position was done by employing secondary benzyl alcohols. These are well soluble and lead to an about 10-times shortened Friedel–Crafts step at 0 °C for the conversion of 3g. Longer times only resulted in the

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

• different chemoselectivity: secondary and benzyl alcohols are more easily oxidized. The great diversity of catalytic systems based on amine-N-oxyl radicals for alcohol oxidation was proposed [74][76][77][95]. Amine-N-oxyl organocatalysts with enhanced catalytic activity were developed by the modification of

• biomimetic oxidation of benzyl alcohols was developed using o-naphthoquinone [129] (Scheme 28). The reaction shows regioselectivity toward benzylic alcohol oxidation. This process could be included in one-pot synthesis strategies. The key step of the reaction is a 1,5-hydrogen transfer (the suggested

Electrochemical formal homocoupling of sec-alcohols

• Kosuke Yamamoto,
• Kazuhisa Arita,
• Masashi Shiota,
• Masami Kuriyama and
• Osamu Onomura

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1062–1069, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.108

• ][16][17][18]. In addition to the reductive coupling of carbonyl compounds, oxidative homocoupling reactions of benzyl alcohols under transition metal- or semiconductor-based photoredox catalysis have been demonstrated as attractive approaches to access vic-1,2-diols [19][20][21][22][23

• -coupling reaction of two different benzyl alcohols (Scheme 3). Pleasingly, the reaction using a 1:1 mixture of 1a and 1f under the standard reaction conditions provided the cross-coupling product 2af (dr = 94:6) together with the homocoupling products 2a and 2f. To demonstrate the scalability of the

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

• (methyl, isopropyl and benzyl alcohols) were used and the results are shown in Table 3. All the experiments were carried out using a solution of 0.1 M of BMImBF4 in acetonitrile (20 mL) as catholyte, stainless steel as cathode, C/PVDF as anode, in a divided cell, under N2 atmosphere, at room temperature

Transition-metal-free intramolecular Friedel–Crafts reaction by alkene activation: A method for the synthesis of some novel xanthene derivatives

• Tülay Yıldız,
• İrem Baştaş and
• Hatice Başpınar Küçük

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2203–2208, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.142

• (TFA) was the best and most appropriate catalyst for this reaction. According to the literature, different from our work, TFA was reported as a catalyst for FCA with 6-acetoxy-4-alkenylarenes and benzyl alcohols in some previous studies [51][52]. As a continuation of our series of works to develop

Cerium-photocatalyzed aerobic oxidation of benzylic alcohols to aldehydes and ketones

• Girish Suresh Yedase,
• Sumit Kumar,
• Jessica Stahl,
• Burkhard König and
• Veera Reddy Yatham

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1727–1732, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.121

• the corresponding halo-substituted benzaldehydes 2a–d in good yields. The oxidation of simple benzyl alcohol (1e) under our reaction conditions gave benzaldehyde (2e) in 55% yield. A variety of electron-donating para-substituted benzyl alcohols (1f–h) gave lower isolated yields of the corresponding

• benzylic alcohols were tested and 2-fluoro (1l) and 2-chloro (1m) benzyl alcohols gave the aldehydes 2l and 2m in good yields. The o-phenyl-substituted benzylic alcohol (1n) afforded biphenyl-2-carbaldehyde (2n) in only low yield (25%) probably due to steric reasons. The o-methyl (1o) and o-methoxy (1p

• inhibition of the catalytic cycle upon the addition of TEMPO revealed that the reaction proceeds through radical intermediates. Next, we carried out UV–vis monitoring experiments in order to verify whether the interaction with the substituted benzyl alcohols and CeIV could lead to a ligand-to-metal charge

CF₃-substituted carbocations: underexploited intermediates with great potential in modern synthetic chemistry

• Anthony J. Fernandes,
• Armen Panossian,
• Bastien Michelet,
• Agnès Martin-Mingot,
• Frédéric R. Leroux and
• Sébastien Thibaudeau

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 343–378, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.32

• indenes 39a–c from the α-(trifluoromethyl)allyl-substituted benzyl alcohols 38a–c in strong acids has been reported (Scheme 9) [59]. The significant rate retardation observed upon the addition of further CF3 groups, illustrated by the need for harsh reaction conditions, strongly supports the formation of

• delocalized α-(trifluoromethyl)carbenium ions 40a–c. Vasilyev et al. also investigated this Nazarov electrocyclization for the synthesis of indene derivatives. Thus, a variety of indenes 42 could be readily obtained from α-(trifluoromethyl)allyl-substituted benzyl alcohols 41a or the corresponding silyl

One-pot synthesis of oxazolidinones and five-membered cyclic carbonates from epoxides and chlorosulfonyl isocyanate: theoretical evidence for an asynchronous concerted pathway

• Esra Demir,
• Ozlem Sari,
• Yasin Çetinkaya,
• Ufuk Atmaca,
• Safiye Sağ Erdem and
• Murat Çelik

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1805–1819, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.148

• reaction in more detail. In our previous studies, we investigated the reactions of CSI with various substrates such as carboxylic acids, alkenes and allyl or benzyl alcohols [43][44][45][46]. As a continuation of these studies, we performed one-pot syntheses of the title compounds by optimizing the

Recent applications of porphyrins as photocatalysts in organic synthesis: batch and continuous flow approaches

• Rodrigo Costa e Silva,
• Luely Oliveira da Silva,
• Aloisio de Andrade Bartolomeu,
• Timothy John Brocksom and
• Kleber Thiago de Oliveira

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 917–955, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.83

• using CNH as photocatalyst. Sulfonic acid scope of the sulfonation reactions. Regioselective sulfonation reaction of arimistane. Synthesis of quinazolin-4-(3H)-ones. Selective photooxidation of aromatic benzyl alcohols to benzaldehydes using Pt/PCN-224(Zn). Photooxidation of benzaldehydes to benzoic

Recent advances in photocatalyzed reactions using well-defined copper(I) complexes

• Mingbing Zhong,
• Xavier Pannecoucke,
• Philippe Jubault and
• Thomas Poisson

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 451–481, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.42

• )(xantphos)]BF4 as the catalyst and DABCO as the base (Scheme 27). The products were obtained in moderate to good yields and moderate diastereoselectivities. The reaction was applied to N-alkoxyphthalimides derived from aliphatic and benzyl alcohols and heteroaromatic ones. To explain the reaction outcome

A toolbox of molecular photoswitches to modulate the CXCR3 chemokine receptor with light

• Xavier Gómez-Santacana,
• Sabrina M. de Munnik,
• Tamara A. M. Mocking,
• Niels J. Hauwert,
• Shanliang Sun,
• Prashanna Vijayachandran,
• Iwan J. P. de Esch,
• Henry F. Vischer,
• Maikel Wijtmans and
• Rob Leurs

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2509–2523, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.244

• was selectively reduced with DIBAL-H to benzyl alcohols 23f–h, which were oxidized with Dess–Martin periodinane to the corresponding benzaldehyde 26f–h. Reductive amination of 26f–h with 7 gave the tertiary amines 13f–h. Methylation with iodomethane and subsequent precipitation gave 3f–h as orange

A metal-free approach for the synthesis of amides/esters with pyridinium salts of phenacyl bromides via oxidative C–C bond cleavage

• Kesari Lakshmi Manasa,
• Yellaiah Tangella,
• Namballa Hari Krishna and
• Mallika Alvala

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1864–1871, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.182

• 10.3762/bjoc.15.182 Abstract An efficient, simple, and metal-free synthetic approach for the N- and O-benzoylation of various amines/benzyl alcohols with pyridinium salts of phenacyl bromides is demonstrated to generate the corresponding amides and esters. This protocol facilitates the oxidative cleavage

• -phenylethanamine and a secondary amine like dibenzylamine were also found to be amenable for this transformation and delivered the corresponding amides 3t and 3u in good yields. Inspired by the above results, we thought to study the feasibility of O-benzoylation by utilizing benzyl alcohols under similar reaction

• conditions. To our pleasure, various benzyl alcohols bearing electron-withdrawing and electron-donating substituents smoothly underwent O-benzoylation and delivered the corresponding benzoate esters 5a–i in good yields (Scheme 3). Similar results as for the of N-benzoylation were obtained with respect to the

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

• (Scheme 4, alcohol 16a) required doubling of the quantity of the nitrosyl catalyst (AZADO, 2 mol %) and longer reaction times (from 30 to 60 min) to achieve completion. Another useful feature of this protocol can be seen in the case of secondary benzyl alcohols, where the oxidation reaction to the

One-pot synthesis of epoxides from benzyl alcohols and aldehydes

• Edwin Alfonzo,
• Jesse W. L. Mendoza and
• Aaron B. Beeler

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 2308–2312, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.205

• Edwin Alfonzo Jesse W. L. Mendoza Aaron B. Beeler Department of Chemistry, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, United States 10.3762/bjoc.14.205 Abstract A one-pot synthesis of epoxides from commercially available benzyl alcohols and aldehydes is described. The reaction proceeds

• through in situ generation of sulfonium salts from benzyl alcohols and their subsequent deprotonation for use in Corey–Chaykovsky epoxidation of aldehydes. The generality of the method is exemplified by the synthesis of 34 epoxides that were made from an array of electronically and sterically varied

• its original disclosure, particular in the area of asymmetric synthesis [22][23][24]. Other notable advancements include the expansion of its scope by using organic bases and a one-pot oxidation/epoxidation sequence of benzyl alcohols with manganese dioxide and an exogenous sulfonium salt [25][26