Copper-catalyzed yne-allylic substitutions: concept and recent developments

• Shuang Yang and
• Xinqiang Fang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2739–2775, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.232

• -naphthol by applying a new ligand L14, leading to the rapid construction of differently substituted chiral spirocyclic enones 40a–j with high yields and enantioselectivities (Scheme 41). It is worth noting that when the C4 position of 1-naphthol was occupied, the reaction occurred at the C2 position

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

• significant advancement in mechanocatalysis. The stereoselective addition of bisthiomalonates 1–4 to cyclic enones and 4-chlorobenzylideneacetone proceeds stereoselectively under iminium activation conditions secured by chiral primary amines, in contrast to oxo-esters as observed in dibenzyl malonate addition

• nitroalkenes or guanidine-mediated addition of bisthiomalonates to maleimides, cyclic enones, and acyclic 1,4-dicarbonylbutenes, albeit at low temperatures and with relatively long reaction times, further limited to a narrow scope of thioesters (Scheme 1) [31]. Recently, we described a cinchona-squaramide

• -based catalytic system for the highly stereoselective addition of various bisthiomalonates to chalcones and dienones [29]. While recognizing the potential for greater selectivity enhancement and time savings with ball milling, hydrogen-bonding catalysis was effective only with aromatic enones, yielding

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

Diastereoselective synthesis of highly substituted cyclohexanones and tetrahydrochromene-4-ones via conjugate addition of curcumins to arylidenemalonates

• Deepa Nair,
• Abhishek Tiwari,
• Banamali Laha and
• Irishi N. N. Namboothiri

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2016–2023, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.177

• treatment of Alzheimer's disease [3][4]. Likewise, RL91 and BHMPC are active for selective cell growth inhibition of the resistant lines (Figure 1) [5][6]. Their synthesis mainly involves a cascade Michael–aldol reaction between enones and suitable Michael donors such as β-ketosulfones, β-diketones, or

Electrocatalytic hydrogenation of cyanoarenes, nitroarenes, quinolines, and pyridines under mild conditions with a proton-exchange membrane reactor

• Koichi Mitsudo,
• Atsushi Osaki,
• Haruka Inoue,
• Eisuke Sato,
• Naoki Shida,
• Mahito Atobe and
• Seiji Suga

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1560–1571, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.139

• aryl halides [42]. PEM reactors are also gaining industrial attention. Weber et al. reported a series of large-scale syntheses using PEM reactors [43]. We studied electrochemical transformations [44][45][46][47][48][49] and recently reported the selective reduction of enones using a PEM reactor [50

Primary amine-catalyzed enantioselective 1,4-Michael addition reaction of pyrazolin-5-ones to α,β-unsaturated ketones

• Pooja Goyal,
• Akhil K. Dubey,
• Raghunath Chowdhury and
• Amey Wadawale

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1518–1526, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.136

• organocatalyzed asymmetric Michael addition reaction of 4-monosubstituted pyrazol-5-ones to simple enones for the synthesis of pyrazolone derivatives [25]. Despite these progresses, arylidene/heteroarylideneacetones have remained untapped by 4-unsubstituted pyrazolin-5-ones under asymmetric organocatalytic or

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

• components, such as various acrylates, α,β-unsaturated acids, enones, enals, acrylamides, vinyl phosphonates, and vinyl sulfones. Various cesium salts of oxalates also performed well using this protocol. Isopropyl and tert-butyl groups present in an adjacent position of oxalates do not disturb the reaction

A Diels–Alder probe for discovery of natural products containing furan moieties

• Alyssa S. Eggly,
• Namuunzul Otgontseren,
• Carson B. Roberts,
• Amir Y. Alwali,
• Haylie E. Hennigan and
• Elizabeth I. Parkinson

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1001–1010, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.88

• aromatic ring, to make the compound UV-active. Previously developed probes containing both MS and UV–vis tags have proven to be successful in cell supernatant in identifying a number of functional groups including epoxides, enones, citrulline, conjugated alkenes, and others [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15

Advancements in hydrochlorination of alkenes

• Daniel S. Müller

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 787–814, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.72

• oxidation, whereas in Nicewicz's report, the alkene is oxidized. This modification allows for a significantly larger reaction scope (Scheme 29). Terminal alkenes and several functional groups such as ethers (163), esters (165), ketones (166), nitriles (167), and enones (170) are tolerated. The

Cyclization of 1-aryl-4,4,4-trichlorobut-2-en-1-ones into 3-trichloromethylindan-1-ones in triflic acid

• Vladislav A. Sokolov,
• Andrei A. Golushko,
• Irina A. Boyarskaya and
• Aleksander V. Vasilyev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1460–1470, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.105

• Technical University, Institutsky per., 5, Saint Petersburg, 194021, Russia, SAMS Research Group, University of Strasbourg, Institut Charles Sadron, CNRS, 67200 Strasbourg, France 10.3762/bjoc.19.105 Abstract Trichloromethyl-substituted enones (1-aryl-4,4,4-trichlorobut-2-en-1-ones, ArCOCH=CHCCl3, CCl3

• -enones) undergo intramolecular transformation into 3-trichloromethylindan-1-ones (CCl3-indanones) in Brønsted superacid CF3SO3H (triflic acid, TfOH) at 80 °C within 2–10 h in yields up to 92%. Protonation of the carbonyl oxygen of the starting CCl3-enones by TfOH affords the key reactive intermediates

• -4,4,4-trichloro-3-hydroxybutan-1-ones; ArCOCH2CH(OH)CCl3) undergo dehydration to the corresponding CCl3-enones, which are further cyclized into CCl3-indanones. The yields of CCl3-indanones starting from CCl3-hydroxy ketones are up to 86% in TfOH at 80 °C within 3–18 h. Keywords: carbocations; enones

α-(Aminomethyl)acrylates as acceptors in radical–polar crossover 1,4-additions of dialkylzincs: insights into enolate formation and trapping

• Angel Palillero-Cisneros,
• Paola G. Gordillo-Guerra,
• Fernando García-Alvarez,
• Olivier Jackowski,
• Franck Ferreira,
• Fabrice Chemla,
• Joel L. Terán and
• Alejandro Perez-Luna

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1443–1451, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.103

• . Trialkylboranes can react in a similar way with enones [3] whereas, distinctively, suitable acceptors for the reaction with dialkylzinc reagents also include α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acid derivatives such as α,β-unsaturated (di)esters [4][5], N-enoyloxazolidinones [6][7], N-enoyloxazolidines [8], or

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

• complex 57 was obtained through reduction of the phenoxyimine-imidazolium bromide 55a (R = t-Bu) with NaBH4 followed by successive alkylation with iPrBr and reaction with Cu2O (Scheme 19) [32]. The use of the synthesized complexes 56a and 57 as precatalysts for the 1,4-conjugate addition to enones and the

• [(IMes)2Cu]+FHF− (91) was also obtained. These complexes exhibit an interesting catalytic activity that will be described later. 2 Application as catalysts In 2001, Woodward, for the first time, reported an NHC–Cu-mediated catalysis in the conjugate addition of diethylzinc to enones (Scheme 33) [46

• arylaluminium reagents to five-, six-, and seven-membered β-substituted cyclic enones (Scheme 42). It is obvious that the NHC–Cu(I) complexes are generated in situ through transmetallation. For arylation reactions, Me2(Ar)Al reagents were used. The substrates having a variety of substituents (R = CH2Bn, n-Bu

First synthesis of acylated nitrocyclopropanes

• Kento Iwai,
• Rikiya Kamidate,
• Khimiya Wada,
• Haruyasu Asahara and
• Nagatoshi Nishiwaki

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 892–900, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.67

• example, when esters 1a are subjected to Lewis acid-induced denitration, highly electron-deficient enones (reaction b) [4] are obtained. The latter compounds are highly reactive and undergo reaction with, e.g., mercaptoacetaldehyde affording thiophenes (reaction c) [5] or with activated (hetero)aromatic

Asymmetric tandem conjugate addition and reaction with carbocations on acylimidazole Michael acceptors

• Brigita Mudráková,
• Renata Marcia de Figueiredo,
• Jean-Marc Campagne and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 881–888, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.65

• , imines, other Michael acceptors, or alkyl halides. Our group is developing trapping of metal enolates with stabilized carbocations and could show that magnesium enolates generated from enones [22], unsaturated amides [23], or heterocycles reacted with tropylium, dithiolylium or flavylium cations [24

Synthesis of medium and large phostams, phostones, and phostines

• Jiaxi Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 687–699, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.50

• ]oxaphosphepin-5(4H)-one 2-oxides from 2-phenyl/alkoxy-4H-benzo[d][1,3,2]dioxaphosphinin-4-ones and dialkyl 2-benzylidenemalonates. Synthesis of bicyclic seven- and eight-membered phosphotones from cycloalk-2-enones and dimethyl phosphonate. Synthesis of binaphthylene-fused phosphotones from (M)-2'-methyl-[1,1

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

• enolate. González-Gómez et al. studied the tandem conjugate addition of dialkylzincs to cyclic enones (9, 12) and the subsequent reaction of the enolate with N-tert-butanesulfinylimines 10 (Scheme 4) [24][25][26]. Their method was applied to a broad range of substrates (5–7-membered rings) with equally

• using acyclic enones 14 [27]. Their tandem conjugate addition/Mannich reaction methodology offers access to various non-cyclic β-aminoketones 16 with multiple contiguous stereocenters in high diastereo- and enantioselectivity (Scheme 5a). Additionally, chiral isoindolinones 18 and 2,3,4-trisubstituted

• imines or their synthetic equivalents. Furthermore, we wanted to develop an enantioselective and diastereoselective process without adding chirality elements within the reagents. For our initial studies, we have selected the well-studied cyclic enones as substrates and the Taniaphos ligand (L14) that has

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

• -indoline and gave the Bpin-N-indoline product 27; this was suggested as the major pathway (Scheme 7). Thomas et al. reported the H-B-9-BBN-catalysed reductive cyanation of enones with HBpin and N-cyano-N-phenyl-p-toluenesulfonamide (NCTS) (Scheme 8) [71]. The reaction was proposed to proceed by 1,4

• fluoride 50 to give the ester 51 and FBpin (Scheme 11). The H-B-9-BBN-catalysed 1,4-hydroboration of enones with HBpin was shown by Thomas, including the subsequent functionalisation of the intermediate Bpin-enolate 52 (Scheme 12) [76]. The proposed mechanism began by 1,4-hydroboration of the enone 29 with

• reaction of enones and esters or lactones (Scheme 14) [77]. Through a series of single-turnover reactions, a mechanism was proposed (Scheme 14): H-B-9-BBN underwent 1,4-hydroboration with the enone 29, followed by B‒O/B‒H transborylation with HBpin to give an O-Bpin enolate 52 and regenerate H-B-9-BBN

Sequential hydrozirconation/Pd-catalyzed cross coupling of acyl chlorides towards conjugated (2E,4E)-dienones

• Benedikt Kolb,
• Daniela Silva dos Santos,
• Sanja Krause,
• Anna Zens and
• Sabine Laschat

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 176–185, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.17

• condensation of enals 6 with aldehydes 7a or ketones 7b [6][7][8][9][10][11], isomerization of alkynones 8 [12][13][14][15], Horner–Wadsworth–Emmons reaction of unsaturated phosphonates 9 and aldehydes 10 [16][17], and dehydrogenation of enones 11 [18]. Further, Claisen rearrangement of vinyl propargylic

• ethers 12 [19] and metal-catalyzed cross coupling of alkenes 13 and enones 14 [20][21] have been reported. However, these reactions face multiple disadvantages such as limited substrate scope, use of hazardous solvents and harsh reaction conditions such as high temperatures or acidic/basic conditions

• could be converted to enones 20 by hydrozirconation followed by Pd-catalyzed acylation with acyl chlorides 21 [61]. The substrate scope required aryl units at either alkyne or acid chloride unit. Recently, we could extend this method to alkyl-substituted alkynes 16 and acetyl chloride (22), providing

Catalytic aza-Nazarov cyclization reactions to access α-methylene-γ-lactam heterocycles

• Bilge Banu Yagci,
• Selin Ezgi Donmez,
• Onur Şahin and
• Yunus Emre Türkmen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 66–77, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.6

• enantioselective organocatalytic aza-Nazarov cyclization affording six-membered heterocycles after a ring expansion of the cyclization products [22]. Rasapalli and co-workers recently developed an efficient aza-Nazarov cyclization of quinazolinonyl enones promoted by TfOH or MsOH (methanesulfonic acid) for 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

• 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

Functionalization of imidazole N-oxide: a recent discovery in organic transformations

• Koustav Singha,
• Imran Habib and
• Mossaraf Hossain

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1575–1588, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.168

• products. Interestingly, unstable enones formed from the CH-acids like 4-hydroxy-6-methylpyrone and 4-hydroxycoumarin also successfully gave the desired products 35p and 35q under the standard conditions. The proposed reaction mechanism proceeded through the same pathway as outlined in Scheme 5. The

• reaction. However, in this reaction process, 2.0 equiv of CH-acids were needed against arylglyoxals since the electrophilic character of glyoxals is higher than that of aldehydes, generating less stable enones while reacting with CH-acids. First, 1.0 equiv CH-acid was reacted with 1.0 equiv arylglyoxal to

A facile approach to spiro[dihydrofuran-2,3'-oxindoles] via formal [4 + 1] annulation reaction of fused 1H-pyrrole-2,3-diones with diazooxindoles

• Pavel A. Topanov,
• Anna A. Maslivets,
• Maksim V. Dmitriev,
• Irina V. Mashevskaya,
• Yurii V. Shklyaev and
• Andrey N. Maslivets

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1532–1538, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.162

• first example of a catalyst-free formal [4 + 1] cycloaddition reaction of enones and complex diazo compounds. The synthesized compounds 3 have a pharmaceutically interesting fungal metabolites-like structure with a spiro[dihydrofuran-2,3'-oxindole] moiety. Selected examples of biologically active

• natural products bearing a spirofuranoxindole moiety. Synthesis of spiro[dihydrofuran-2,3'-oxindoles] from enones and diazooxindoles. Cycloaddition reactions of [e]-fused 1H-pyrrole-2,3-diones. The model reaction of FPD 1a and diazooxindole 2a. The reaction of FPD 1k with diazooxindole 2a. A) Plausible

B–N/B–H Transborylation: borane-catalysed nitrile hydroboration

• Filip Meger,
• Alexander C. W. Kwok,
• Franziska Gilch,
• Dominic R. Willcox,
• Alex J. Hendy,
• Kieran Nicholson,
• Andrew D. Bage,
• Thomas Langer,
• Thomas A. Hunt and
• Stephen P. Thomas

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1332–1337, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.138

• transborylation (a σ-bond metathesis turnover method) has been used for borane-catalysed reductions of N-heteroarenes [28][29], and the borane-catalysed cyanation of enones [30]. Applying B–N/B–H transborylation to the hydroboration of nitriles would enable the development of a borane-catalysed hydroboration of

Electrochemical hydrogenation of enones using a proton-exchange membrane reactor: selectivity and utility

• Koichi Mitsudo,
• Haruka Inoue,
• Yuta Niki,
• Eisuke Sato and
• Seiji Suga

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1055–1061, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.107

• Koichi Mitsudo Haruka Inoue Yuta Niki Eisuke Sato Seiji Suga Division of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-naka, Kita-ku, Okayama 700-8530, Japan 10.3762/bjoc.18.107 Abstract Electrochemical hydrogenation of enones using a

• proton-exchange membrane reactor is described. The reduction of enones proceeded smoothly under mild conditions to afford ketones or alcohols. The reaction occurred chemoselectively with the use of different cathode catalysts (Pd/C or Ir/C). Keywords: enone; hydrogenation; iridium; palladium; PEM

• reactor; Introduction Catalytic hydrogenation of α,β-enones is a significant transformation in organic synthesis [1]. Hydrogenation of enones can give ketones, allyl alcohols, and saturated alcohols, and the control of the chemoselectivity is important. Therefore, there have been numerous studies on the

Ligand-dependent stereoselective Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling reactions of β-enamido triflates

• Tomáš Chvojka,
• Athanasios Markos,
• Svatava Voltrová,
• Radek Pohl and
• Petr Beier

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2657–2662, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.179

• bond of vinyl (pseudo)halides during the Suzuki coupling have been published [25][26][27][28][29]. Typically, inversion of configuration occurs on substrates containing a double bond in conjugation with an electron-withdrawing group, such as the carbonyl group in enones [27][30]. We hypothesized that

• (Z)-β-enamido triflates could, during the Suzuki cross-coupling, undergo isomerization of the double bond, similarly to enones, and thus serve as starting materials to either (E) or (Z)-isomers of enamides depending on the conditions used. Here we present a study of the effect of ligand on the