Enantioselective radical chemistry: a bright future ahead

• Anna C. Renner,
• Sagar S. Thorat,
• Hariharaputhiran Subramanian and
• Mukund P. Sibi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2283–2296, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.174

• describes several important catalytic asymmetric strategies applied to enantioselective radical reactions, including chiral Lewis acid catalysis, organocatalysis, photoredox catalysis, chiral transition-metal catalysis and photoenzymatic catalysis. The application of electrochemistry to asymmetric radical

• transformations is also discussed. Keywords: chiral Lewis acid; electrochemistry; enantioselective radical reaction; organocatalysis; photoenzymatic catalysis; photoredox; Introduction Asymmetric catalysis plays an integral role in the enantioselective synthesis of organic compounds. A wide variety of

• the 1990s. Since then, meticulous research by several research groups has led to significant advances in this area [4][5][6][7][8]. This perspective focuses on several important contributions to the science of asymmetric radical reactions. Pioneering work on chiral Lewis acid catalysis and iminium

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

• Lewis acid complex of Rh has been employed by Meggers and coworkers to functionalize the α-position of 2-acylimidazoles [55]. The reported transformation represents a successful example of a catalytic asymmetric electrosynthesis, which is typically quite challenging. The process was conducted in an

• efficiently, enabling the LSF of benzodiazepine drugs such as diazepam, halazepam, and prazepam. Mechanistically, the Rh complex activates the C–H bond in phenylpyridine and assists in forming a bond with diphenylphosphine oxide, which, after anodic oxidation, yields the target product (Scheme 39). A chiral

Facile and innovative catalytic protocol for intramolecular Friedel–Crafts cyclization of Morita–Baylis–Hillman adducts: Synergistic combination of chiral (salen)chromium(III)/BF₃·OEt₂ catalysis

• Karthikeyan Soundararajan,
• Helen Ratna Monica Jeyarajan,
• Raju Subimol Kamarajapurathu and
• Karthik Krishna Kumar Ayyanoth

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2186–2193, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.140

• convinced us to explore them as suitable chiral Lewis acid catalysts for the Friedel–Crafts cyclization of MBH adducts. Mononuclear(salen) complexes of aluminium, chromium, manganese and cobalt were chosen and screened for the current investigation. Results and Discussion To evaluate the scope of 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

•  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

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

• asymmetric induction was proposed to be realized via a combination of chiral Lewis acid-bound radical (generated through a single-electron anodic oxidation) and benzylic radical, generated through the anodic oxidation of 95. As per the proposed catalytic cycle, initial coordination of the Lewis acid catalyst

Application of chiral 2-isoxazoline for the synthesis of syn-1,3-diol analogs

• Juanjuan Feng,
• Tianyu Li,
• Jiaxin Zhang and
• Peng Jiao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1840–1847, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.179

• the amount of the chiral Lewis acid catalyst led to a decrease of both the ee and the yield. Desilylation of the 2-isoxazolidine 1 was effected in CHCl3 using catalytic amounts of p-toluenesulfonic acid (PTSA). Though the yield of the in situ-generated 2-isoxazoline 2 bearing the 1,3-oxazolidin-2-one

Catalytic asymmetric oxo-Diels–Alder reactions with chiral atropisomeric biphenyl diols

• Chi-Tung Yeung,
• Wesley Ting Kwok Chan,
• Wai-Sum Lo,
• Ga-Lai Law and
• Wing-Tak Wong

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 955–962, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.92

• reactions. Oxo-Diels–Alder (oxo-DA) reactions between electron-poor aldehydes and electron-rich dienes such as Danishefsky’s dienes or Brassard’s dienes are efficient ways to construct oxygen-containing six-membered heterocycles via [4 + 2] cyclizations, and have been dominated by metal-based chiral Lewis

• acid catalysts for over three decades [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. Comparatively, interest in the utilization of metal-free organocatalytic oxo-DA reactions began to grow only after Rawal’s group reported a ground-breaking contribution in using a diol molecule, TADDOL, as a

β-Hydroxy sulfides and their syntheses

• Mokgethwa B. Marakalala,
• Edwin M. Mmutlane and
• Henok H. Kinfe

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 1668–1692, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.143

• acid catalyzed protocols. Many asymmetric versions of epoxide opening by thiols assisted by chiral catalysts have been reported and are part of several reviews [30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. In 1985, Yamashita and Mukaiyama demonstrated the efficacy of zinc L-tartrate as a heterogeneous chiral Lewis

• acid catalyst for the asymmetric ring opening of cyclohexene oxide with alkyl- and arylthiols [37]. The optimal conditions were found to be 10 mol % of the catalyst relative to cyclohexene oxide, at room temperature, in dichloromethane as the solvent (Scheme 11). More polar solvents such as DMF

Copper-catalyzed asymmetric methylation of fluoroalkylated pyruvates with dimethylzinc

• Kohsuke Aikawa,
• Kohei Yabuuchi,
• Kota Torii and
• Koichi Mikami

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 576–582, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.44

• electrophile in the presence of a chiral Lewis acid complex [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. However, the synthetic method for chiral α-trifluoromethylated tertiary alcohols via methylation of trifluoropyruvate is quite limited, although several drug candidates bearing this chiral trifluoromethylated moiety

Development of chiral metal amides as highly reactive catalysts for asymmetric [3 + 2] cycloadditions

• Yasuhiro Yamashita,
• Susumu Yoshimoto,
• Mark J. Dutton and
• Shū Kobayashi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 1447–1452, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.140

• biologically active compounds are particularly important. Chiral Lewis acid/Brønsted base-catalyzed carbon–carbon bond-forming reactions are one of the most efficient methods from the viewpoint of atom economy because only proton transfer occurs between starting materials and target products [2]. Several kinds

• of chiral Lewis acid/Brønsted base-catalyst systems have been developed; however, decreasing the catalyst loading is sometimes problematic either because of the low reactivity of catalysts or because the catalyst activity can be reduced through Lewis acid–Lewis base interaction between catalysts and

Conjugate addition–enantioselective protonation reactions

• James P. Phelan and
• Jonathan A. Ellman

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2016, 12, 1203–1228, doi:10.3762/bjoc.12.116

• –enantioselective protonation using α,β-unsaturated nitriles has remained unexplored for substrates other than methacrylonitrile. The Togni lab has explored using ferrocenyl tridentate nickel(II) and palladium(II) complexes as chiral Lewis acid catalysts for the hydrophosphination and hydroamination of

Recent applications of ring-rearrangement metathesis in organic synthesis

• Sambasivarao Kotha,
• Milind Meshram,
• Priti Khedkar,
• Shaibal Banerjee and
• Deepak Deodhar

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 1833–1864, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.199

• ) atmosphere to deliver the required bicyclo[3.3.0]octane derivative 108b in 90% yield (Scheme 23). Shibatomi and co-workers have reported an enantioselective DA reaction of β-fluoromethylacrylate under the influence of the chiral Lewis acid-activated catalyst, oxazaborolidine to generate the

Novel stereocontrolled syntheses of tashiromine and epitashiromine

• Loránd Kiss,
• Enikő Forró and
• Ferenc Fülöp

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 596–603, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.66

• indolizidinone [31]. Several synthetic procedures have also been developed for the preparation of tashiromine or epitashiromine enantiomers. (+)-Tashiromine has been synthetized from a pyrrolidinone derivative through chiral Lewis acid-catalysed cyclization to substituted pyrrolidinones [17], by the

Diastereoselective and enantioselective conjugate addition reactions utilizing α,β-unsaturated amides and lactams

• Katherine M. Byrd

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 530–562, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.60

• in the development of 1,4-cyanations of α,β-unsaturated compounds [213][214][215][216][217][218], there are limited examples that use α,β-unsaturated amides as Michael acceptors [219]. Thus, the authors expanded the scope of this reaction by using a chiral Lewis acid as a catalyst. After screening

• few previous reports of this reaction [221][222][223], Sibi and co-workers reported some of the first examples of the 1,4-radical addition to α,β-unsaturated N-alkenoyloxazolidinones using a substoichiometric amount of a chiral Lewis acid [224][225] (Scheme 28). The authors were only able to decrease

• amides was reported by Sibi and co-workers [233]. In this work, they performed the 1,4-addition of O-benzylhydroxylamine to pyrazole-derived α,β-unsaturated amides using a chiral Lewis acid derived from bisoxazoline 116 (Scheme 29). The authors obtained the 1,4-addition products in optimal yields and

Cross-dehydrogenative coupling for the intermolecular C–O bond formation

• Igor B. Krylov,
• Vera A. Vil’ and
• Alexander O. Terent’ev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 92–146, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.13

• reductive elimination to give product 235 (Scheme 49) [217]. The Pd(OAc)2·[1,2-bis(phenylsulfinyl)ethane]-catalyzed enantioselective acetoxylation of terminal alkenes was accomplished in the presence of a chiral Lewis acid; ee = 45–63%; the reaction was performed with a small excess of AcOH (1.1 equiv) in

Synthetic scope and DFT analysis of the chiral binap–gold(I) complex-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of azlactones with alkenes

• María Martín-Rodríguez,
• Luis M. Castelló,
• Carmen Nájera,
• José M. Sansano,
• Olatz Larrañaga,
• Abel de Cózar and
• Fernando P. Cossío

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 2422–2433, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.280

• different purposes [11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. These substrates can be easily transformed in münchnones, which are potential 1,3-dipoles, after deprotonation and imine-activation with a chiral Lewis acid. Despite of the easy access to this mesoionic heterocycles their enantioselective cycloadditions with

Organocatalyzed enantioselective desymmetrization of aziridines and epoxides

• Ping-An Wang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 1677–1695, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.192

• transformations. On the one hand, the desymmetrization of meso-epoxides has been successfully performed with various nucleophiles in the presence of metal-based chiral Lewis acid catalysts [61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72]. In recent years, expensive and toxic metals were more and more replaced by

Cascade radical reaction of substrates with a carbon–carbon triple bond as a radical acceptor

• Hideto Miyabe,
• Ryuta Asada and
• Yoshiji Takemoto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 1148–1155, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.128

• hydroxamate ester as a chiral Lewis acid coordination moiety was first shown in an intermolecular reaction involving a radical addition and sequential allylation processes. Next, the effect of hydroxamate ester was studied in the cascade addition–cyclization–trapping reaction of substrates with a carbon

• chiral Lewis acid and these substrates. Keywords: cascade; cyclization; enantioselective; free radical; Lewis acid; radical; Introduction Strategies involving a cascade process offer the advantage of multiple carbon–carbon and/or carbon–heteroatom bond formations in a single operation. Radical

• ][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68]. We have also investigated a new type of chiral Lewis acid mediated cyclization approach for cascade bond-forming reactions via sequential radical–radical processes (Figure 2) [39][40][41][42][43]. In these

Asymmetric Diels–Alder reaction with >C=P– functionality of the 2-phosphaindolizine-η¹-P-aluminium(O-menthoxy) dichloride complex: experimental and theoretical results

• Rajendra K. Jangid,
• Nidhi Sogani,
• Neelima Gupta,
• Raj K. Bansal,
• Moritz von Hopffgarten and
• Gernot Frenking

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 392–400, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.40

• ]. In view of this, it was considered interesting to prepare a 2-phosphindolizine-η1-P complex by using a chiral Lewis acid, (−)-menthoxyaluminium dichloride, and to investigate experimentally and theoretically the diastereoselectivity of its DA reaction. The results are described herein. Results and

Asymmetric organocatalytic decarboxylative Mannich reaction using β-keto acids: A new protocol for the synthesis of chiral β-amino ketones

• Chunhui Jiang,
• Fangrui Zhong and
• Yixin Lu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2012, 8, 1279–1283, doi:10.3762/bjoc.8.144

• few decades [7]. Among them, the Mukaiyama–Mannich reaction performed with silyl enol ethers and sulfonyl aldimines, catalyzed by a chiral Lewis acid complex, is one of the most important synthetic methods [8][9][10][11][12][13]. Apparently, direct use of inactivated ketones as a donor would be of

Asymmetric aza-Diels- Alder reaction of Danishefsky's diene with imines in a chiral reaction medium

• Bruce Pégot,
• Olivier Nguyen Van Buu,
• Didier Gori and
• Giang Vo-Thanh

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2006, 2, No. 18, doi:10.1186/1860-5397-2-18

• , chirality transfer was carried out using chiral Lewis acid catalysts. However, these are often expensive, toxic, and not easily recycled. Up until this point, no chiral solvent is reported to have been used in this transformation. Therefore, when researching chiral ionic liquids (ILs), we had two objectives