Electrochemical synthesis of cyclic biaryl λ³-bromanes from 2,2’-dibromobiphenyls

• Andrejs Savkins and
• Igors Sokolovs

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 451–457, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.32

• renders them particularly suitable for the generation of arynes for subsequent use in a wide range of synthetic applications. The common approach to generate cyclic biaryl λ3-bromanes is based on thermal decomposition of hazardous diazonium salts. Herein, we disclose a mild and straightforward approach to

• diarylbromonium species by direct anodic oxidation of 2,2'-dibromo-1,1'-biphenyl. The electrochemical method provides access to a range of symmetrically and non-symmetrically substituted cyclic biaryl λ3-bromanes in moderate yields. Keywords: anodic oxidation; cyclic biaryl λ3-bromane; cyclic voltammetry

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

• –heteroatom (C–X, where X = N, O, or halogens) bonds in organic synthesis. Copper was one of the first transition metals employed in cross-coupling to form C–C and C–X bonds [1][2]. In 1901, Ullmann reported the first cross-coupling reaction for the formation of biaryl compounds in the presence of

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

• was carried out to provide the final biaryl products 17. In a related strategy, Hayashi´s team realized an organocatalytic Michael/aldol cascade leading to chiral dihydronaphthalene derivatives 20a–e [25]. Through a series of one-pot reactions, aromatization was achieved with concomitant central-to

• NBS and AgOTf led to the formation of the (Sa)-atropoisomers, whereas NIS afforded the (Ra)-atropoisomers. Non-biaryl atropoisomers are characterized by at least one non-aryl substituent on the stereogenic axis. Among them, compounds featuring a conformationally stable C(sp2)–C(sp3) stereogenic axis

• -workers developed atroposelective formation of benzothiophene-fused biaryls via formal (4 + 2) annulation [35]. The NHC catalyst C12 was the most efficient for realizing the de novo formation of a new aryl ring within the newly formed axially chiral biaryl 51 from enals 49 and 2-benzylbenzothiophene- or

Non-covalent organocatalyzed enantioselective cyclization reactions of α,β-unsaturated imines

• Sergio Torres-Oya and
• Mercedes Zurro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3221–3255, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.268

• carried out (Scheme 27). An N-alkylation of 69b was performed leading to 70 bearing two stereogenic axes, the biaryl C–C axis and the N–N axis. The removal of the Boc group led to product 71 in a 98% yield. Then, this derivative was subjected to different transformations. Firstly, the hydrogenation using

Chemical structure metagenomics of microbial natural products: surveying nonribosomal peptides and beyond

• Thomas Ma and
• John Chu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3050–3060, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.253

• the glycopeptide antibiotic family [62][63]. Their aromatic rings undergo oxidative coupling to form biaryl moieties that restrict atropisomerism; the resulting rigid structure is key to their high affinity binding to peptidoglycan intermediates [64][65]. Glycopeptide antibiotics include vancomycin

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

• reactions occurred under mild conditions and without any need of transition-metal catalysts. In 2023, Wu and colleagues successfully synthesized a range of meta-substituted biaryl ethers. The reaction involves phenols 61 and cyclic diaryliodonium salts 73, dissolved in tert-butyl alcohol, in the presence of

• the base Cs2CO3 yielding iodine-containing meta-functionalized biaryl ethers 74 (Scheme 29) [80]. Notably, the reaction occurs under transition-metal-free conditions, making it environmentally friendly. The team explored the substrate scope by introducing various substitutions on both phenols 61 and

• the iodine center give the ortho-substituted products in good yield. Additionally, ortho-disubstituted diaryliodonium salts also led to the formation of ortho-substituted biaryl ethers in good yield with 99% selectivity and the reason given was the high torsional strain caused by the ortho

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

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

Natural resorcylic lactones derived from alternariol

• Joachim Podlech

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2171–2207, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.187

• , respectively) [243], showed inhibitory potential against various protein kinases with IC50 values of 1.5–9.7 µg/mL [147], and displayed significant scavenging activities against nitrite [243]. Biosynthetic decarboxylation of desmethylaltenusin affords biaryl 49, which was isolated from Penicillium sp. [244

• ester of desmethylaltenusin, was isolated from Alternaria alternata; it showed neuroprotective effects against oxidative stress-mediated damages in PC12 cells [213]. Two further biaryl derivatives are most likely derived from alternariol and their biosynthesis similarly seems to include a reductive bond

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

• arylhydrazines 116 are used as starting materials. The p-bromophenylpyrazoles presented in situ can be reacted with boronic acids or boronic acid esters in a sequentially Pd-catalyzed coupling towards biaryl-substituted pyrazoles 113, 115, and 117 (Scheme 41) [138]. Furthermore, a pseudo-five-component reaction

• pathway enables the synthesis of 3,5-bis(biphenyl)-1-methyl pyrazole. To stabilize the catalyst, additional triphenylphosphane is added as a ligand during the Suzuki coupling. The resulting products fluoresce blue, with the five biaryl-substituted derivatives 113 showing the highest quantum yields of up

Methyltransferases from RiPP pathways: shaping the landscape of natural product chemistry

• Maria-Paula Schröder,
• Isabel P.-M. Pfeiffer and
• Silja Mordhorst

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1652–1670, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.147

• stereochemistry has not been fully determined yet, one of two proposed positional isomers of the biaryl link between Trp2 and Trp3 is depicted [66]. The three-dimensional structures of the conventional O-MTs OlvSA (model structure calculated by Colabfold [75] and visualised by PyMOL [76]) and LahSB with bound SAH

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

• [87]. The sequence of transformations commencing from the aldehyde 64 afforded the desymmetrized biaryl derivative 66 and proceeded towards the final natural product 67 (Scheme 20). Applying crossed-Cannizzaro reaction: Mondal and coauthors demonstrated an efficient application of the aldol/crossed

Rhodium-catalyzed homo-coupling reaction of aryl Grignard reagents and its application for the synthesis of an integrin inhibitor

• Kazuyuki Sato,
• Satoki Teranishi,
• Atsushi Sakaue,
• Yukiko Karuo,
• Atsushi Tarui,
• Kentaro Kawai,
• Hiroyuki Takeda,
• Tatsuo Kinashi and
• Masaaki Omote

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1341–1347, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.118

• alloy, and has been used as one of the methods for obtaining homo-coupling biaryl compounds (Scheme 1) [1][2]. Starting from these works, various modified Ullmann-type coupling reactions have been developed [3][4]. However, the reaction usually required high temperatures and the yield was not very high

Introduction of peripheral nitrogen atoms to cyclo-meta-phenylenes

• Koki Ikemoto and
• Hiroyuki Isobe

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1207–1212, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.103

• structural features of nitrogen-doped [n]CMPs. The crystal molecular structures of 3a and 3b are shown in Figure 3. The hexagonal macrocyclic structure of 3a showed a chair-like conformation with alternating biaryl dihedral angles showing +/– values. The octagonal structure of 3b exhibited a saddle-like

• dopants. Photophysical properties of 3a and 3b. (a) UV–vis spectrum of 3a in CHCl3. (b) UV–vis spectrum of 3b in CHCl3. For reference, the spectra of [6]CMP and [8]CMP from the literature are also shown in gray [15]. Crystal structures of 3a and 3b. (a) Molecular structures. Biaryl dihedral angles (ω) are

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

• fragmentation rate constants or the N–O bond dissociation energies of radical anions and neutral radicals derived from RAEs are not available in the literature. Lumb and co-workers recently published a study on the conversion of biaryl-derived NHPI esters into spirocyclic cyclohexadienones through a

• aromatic ring, forming intermediate 41, which was then oxidized to cation 42, thereby completing the photocatalytic cycle. The reaction proceeded by regioselective nucleophilic addition of H2O, accompanied by the loss of MeOH to deliver spirocycle 43. Notably, the dearomative spirocyclization of biaryl

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

• activation to generate an aryl–Cu–NHC species. This is followed by the reaction with NHC–Pd to produce an Ar–Pd(NHC)Cl intermediate through the oxidative addition to Pd(0)NHC. Finally, transmetallation of [(It-Bu)Cu(Ar)] with [(SIPr)Pd(Ar)Cl] followed by reductive elimination leads to biaryl product. No

Photoredox catalysis harvesting multiple photon or electrochemical energies

• Mattia Lepori,
• Simon Schmid and
• Joshua P. Barham

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1055–1145, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.81

• two polysulfide redox couples. However, K2CO3 was needed to quench liberated protons. A large variety of electron-poor aryl bromides bearing different functional groups readily underwent SET reductions to give biaryl cross-coupled products 4 in poor to excellent yields (20–93%) (Figure 15A). The

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

• yields (Scheme 28). In this reaction, Grignard reagent 148 was used as arylation source in excess amount as the reagent underwent homocoupling leading to the formation of biaryl systems under the reaction conditions. 1,2-Dichloro-2-methylpropane (149) was found to be an effective oxidant under the

• and 163 through a two-fold C–H activation under palladium catalysis. Silver carbonate and 2,6-lutidine were found to be an effective base and ligand, respectively, for providing the desired products 164 and 165 in good yields (Scheme 31). In 2015, an economic route for copper-catalyzed biaryl coupling

Combining the best of both worlds: radical-based divergent total synthesis

• Kyriaki Gennaiou,
• Antonios Kelesidis,
• Maria Kourgiantaki and
• Alexandros L. Zografos

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1–26, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.1

• substitution for the minimization of 1,3-allylic strain to enable Suzuki coupling for biaryl formation as a single atropisomer. The optimized conditions for this transformation utilize Buchwald’s catalyst (SPhos and Pd-based G2 precatalyst) in conjunction with K3PO4. With DBCOD bearing carboxylic acid handles

Formal total synthesis of macarpine via a Au(I)-catalyzed 6-endo-dig cycloisomerization strategy

• Jiayue Fu,
• Bingbing Li,
• Zefang Zhou,
• Maosheng Cheng,
• Lu Yang and
• Yongxiang Liu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1589–1595, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.169

• ring smoothly, leading to the exclusive formation of biaryl intermediate 11 in a yield of 82%. It is worth noting that the methoxy substitution in the substrate played a crucial role in controlling the selectivity of the cycloisomerization according to our previous study [15]. It was rationalized that

A Streptomyces P450 enzyme dimerizes isoflavones from plants

• Run-Zhou Liu,
• Shanchong Chen and
• Lihan Zhang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1107–1115, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.113

• , which extends the insights into P450-mediated biaryl coupling reactions in biosynthesis. Keywords: biaryl coupling; cytochrome P450; dimerization; isoflavone; natural product; Introduction Dimerization is a ubiquitous biotransformation in nature. Almost all forms of life, including bacteria, fungi

• seen in vinblastine [2], julichrome [3], himastatin [4], and biflavone [5]. However, the structural complexity of the dimeric natural products has hampered synthetic chemistry approaches towards these molecules, since chemo-, regio-, and atroposelective formation of the biaryl linkage remains highly

• [1][10][11][12][13][14]. In plants and fungi, laccases and cytochrome P450 monooxygenases play pivotal roles in the biaryl bond formation of various polyketide dimers [10][15][16]. In contrast, in bacteria, P450 enzymes are the dominant catalysts, but no laccases have been reported for dimerization

Peptide stapling by late-stage Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling

• Hendrik Gruß,
• Rebecca C. Feiner,
• Ridhiwan Mseya,
• David C. Schröder,
• Michał Jewgiński,
• Kristian M. Müller,
• Rafał Latajka,
• Antoine Marion and
• Norbert Sewald

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1–12, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.1

• diastereomers, i.e. cis/trans isomers or conformers with a high interconversion barrier. For complestatin-based macrocyclic peptides, the existence of biaryl atropisomers caused by the indole of tryptophan has been reported [82]. Recently, the occurrence of isomers was also observed in our group for SMC

Recent advances in the asymmetric phosphoric acid-catalyzed synthesis of axially chiral compounds

• Alemayehu Gashaw Woldegiorgis and
• Xufeng Lin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2729–2764, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.185

• construction of axial chirality [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Axially chiral biaryl and heterobiaryl units are widely used as basic building blocks for chiral ligands [14], chiral catalysts [14][15][16][17] (Figure 1), various natural products, drugs and bioactive molecules [18][19], pharmaceutical agents [20

• ][21] (Figure 2), and chiral building blocks in modern organic synthesis [5]. During the past decades, both C2 and non-C2 symmetric axially chiral biaryl compounds such as BINAP, BINAM, NOBIN and their derivatives BINOL have played a crucial role as ligands in the development of transition-metal

• acids are widely used in stereoselective oxidative/cross-coupling of two aryl counterparts, asymmetric control of aromatic ring formation, atroposelective functionalization of biaryl compounds, and so on [17][29][30]. In this context, Akiyama (2004) described that chiral phosphoric acids (CPAs) have

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

• contrast, only very few reports deal with the oxidative cyclization of nitrogen-containing biaryl intermediates. Ravi Kumar and Satyanarayana mentioned two successful control reactions using 2-phenylbenzylamine and 2-iminomethylbiphenyl with 5 mol % Pd(OAc)2 and 2 equivalents Ag2O in acetic acid at 140 °C

• of biaryl aldehyde intermediates 8, reduction [60] in the case of nitriles 14, or Boc deprotection [61] for 14k, m, o according to standard protocols (Schemes 4–7; for details, see Supporting Information File 1). Although it may seem counterintuitive to first convert aldehydes 8 and nitriles 14 into

• aryllithium intermediate. For the synthesis of the benzylamine unit, commercially available nitrile 19 was reacted with NBS to regioselectively introduce a bromo substituent to give bromobenzonitrile 20 in a yield of 51% [65]. Biaryl 21 was constructed via a Suzuki coupling [57] of 18 and 20 in 41% yield. As

Silica gel and microwave-promoted synthesis of dihydropyrrolizines and tetrahydroindolizines from enaminones

• Robin Klintworth,
• Garreth L. Morgans,
• Stefania M. Scalzullo,
• Charles B. de Koning,
• Willem A. L. van Otterlo and
• Joseph P. Michael

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2543–2552, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.170

• uncommon biaryl axis with a pyrrole ring as one of the components, the pyrrole ring itself is created in an unusual manner, and further functionalization of the pyrrole ring is possible. Since both classes of azabicyclic product are well represented in compounds of pharmaceutical interest as well as in