Regioselective formal hydrocyanation of allenes: synthesis of β,γ-unsaturated nitriles with α-all-carbon quaternary centers

• Seeun Lim,
• Teresa Kim and
• Yunmi Lee

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 800–806, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.63

• by the regio- and stereoselective allylation with p-toluenesulfonyl cyanide. The proposed methodology is efficient for accessing acyclic β,γ-unsaturated nitriles with α-all-carbon quaternary centers and achieves yields up to 99% and excellent regio- and E-selectivity. The reaction proceeds under mild

• conditions and shows broad applicability to di- and trisubstituted allenes. Its practicality is demonstrated through the gram-scale synthesis and functional group transformations of amines, amides, and lactams, emphasizing its versatility and synthetic significance. Keywords: α-quaternary nitrile; Cu

• catalysis; hydrocyanation; regioselectivity; tosyl cyanide; Introduction Acyclic nitriles that incorporate α-all-carbon quaternary centers are highly valuable structural motifs typically found in natural products, biologically active compounds, and synthetic pharmaceuticals [1][2][3][4][5]. These compounds

New advances in asymmetric organocatalysis II

• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 766–769, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.60

• ´s quaternary ammonium salts provided the corresponding substituted azlactones comprising a quaternary stereogenic center with the highest enantiomeric purity [21]. A contribution by Chowdhury and Dubey further underscored the importance of heterocyclic moieties in chiral compounds. Their article

Development and mechanistic studies of calcium–BINOL phosphate-catalyzed hydrocyanation of hydrazones

• Carola Tortora,
• Christian A. Fischer,
• Sascha Kohlbauer,
• Alexandru Zamfir,
• Gerd M. Ballmann,
• Jürgen Pahl,
• Sjoerd Harder and
• Svetlana B. Tsogoeva

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 755–765, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.59

• moiety are non-linear with a Ca–N–C angle of 100°. Due to the stereospecificity of the reaction, racemization would have to occur already in 9 through a topomerization (e.g., similar to a Berry pseudorotation) of the metal complex, considering that species with a quaternary carbon, as they appear in

Acyclic cucurbit[n]uril bearing alkyl sulfate ionic groups

• Christian Akakpo,
• Peter Y. Zavalij and
• Lyle Isaacs

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 717–726, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.55

• specific guest. C1 binds more tightly to quaternary ammonium guests compared to the corresponding primary ammonium ions. Keywords: cucurbituril; host–guest chemistry; isothermal titration calorimetry; molecular container; X-ray crystallography; Introduction Molecular recognition interactions are key

• glycoluril quaternary C-atoms. Third, the Me6CHDA guest is not symmetrically oriented with respect to the ureidyl carbonyl portals of C1. Specifically, one of the methonium N-atoms is located inside the cavity of C1 at 1.4476 Å (0.6162 Å) below the mean plane of the ureidyl carbonyl O-atoms whereas the other

• . Finally, we can compare the binding of the primary ammonium versus the corresponding quaternary ammonium ion guest toward C1 and separately M1. We find that C1 binds the quaternary ammoniums somewhat stronger: Me6PXDA vs PXDA (1.72-fold), Me6CHDA vs CHDA (2.42-fold), Me3AdA vs AdA (4.59-fold). A similar

Recent advances in allylation of chiral secondary alkylcopper species

• Minjae Kim,
• Gwanggyun Kim,
• Doyoon Kim,
• Jun Hee Lee and
• Seung Hwan Cho

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 639–658, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.51

• consistent stereochemical outcome highlight its practical utility. Their subsequent work with chiral tertiary boronic esters 25 revealed an effective strategy for constructing quaternary stereogenic centers through allylic substitution reactions (Scheme 8) [48]. By employing in situ-generated

• bearing quaternary stereogenic centers with high stereospecificity. This methodology represents a significant advancement in the construction of challenging all-carbon quaternary stereogenic centers through stereospecific allylic substitution reactions. To elucidate the origin of the selective boron group

Entry to 2-aminoprolines via electrochemical decarboxylative amidation of N‑acetylamino malonic acid monoesters

• Olesja Koleda,
• Janis Sadauskis,
• Darja Antonenko,
• Edvards Janis Treijs,
• Raivis Davis Steberis and
• Edgars Suna

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 630–638, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.50

• meantime, an excellent diastereoselectivity (97:3 dr) was achieved in the decarboxylative cyclization of N-mesylamide 9n possessing an S stereogenic center in the α-position to the nitrogen. Unfortunately, the configuration of the newly formed quaternary stereogenic center in 6n could not be established by

Total synthesis of (±)-simonsol C using dearomatization as key reaction under acidic conditions

• Xiao-Yang Bi,
• Xiao-Shuai Yang,
• Shan-Shan Chen,
• Jia-Jun Sui,
• Zhao-Nan Cai,
• Yong-Ming Chuan and
• Hong-Bo Qin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 601–606, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.47

• acidic conditions as key step to construct an aryl-containing quaternary center. The 6/5/6 benzofuran unit was formed through reductive elimination with Zn/AcOH and a spontaneous oxy-Michael addition. This synthesis consists of 8 steps and achieves an overall yield of 13%, making it the shortest known

• synapse growth and inhibits acetylcholinesterase. (±)-Simonsol C (Figure 1) has received considerable attention due to the presence of an aryl- and allyl-containing quaternary carbon center, which is common in natural products such as galanthamine and morphine. To construct the quaternary carbon in

• simonsol C, two reports have utilized alkaline dearomatization strategies and another report used an intramolecular Heck reaction as the key reaction [5][6][7]. However, there have been no reports or studies utilizing acidic dearomatization, which is also effective, to synthesize an arylated quaternary

Synthesis, structure, ionochromic and cytotoxic properties of new 2-(indolin-2-yl)-1,3-tropolones

• Yurii A. Sayapin,
• Eugeny A. Gusakov,
• Inna O. Tupaeva,
• Alexander D. Dubonosov,
• Igor V. Dorogan,
• Valery V. Tkachev,
• Anna S. Goncharova,
• Gennady V. Shilov,
• Natalia S. Kuznetsova,
• Svetlana Y. Filippova,
• Tatyana A. Krasnikova,
• Yanis A. Boumber,
• Alexey Y. Maksimov,
• Sergey M. Aldoshin and
• Vladimir I. Minkin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 358–368, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.26

• spectrum of 7a, a correlation of the NH proton with the bridging carbon atoms C(3a'), C(9b'), and the quaternary carbon atom C(1') of the indolenine fragment is observed with δH 136.6 ppm, 134.0 ppm, and 53.6 ppm, respectively (Supporting Information File 2, Figure S20). The most important HMBC

Dioxazolones as electrophilic amide sources in copper-catalyzed and -mediated transformations

• Seungmin Lee,
• Minsuk Kim,
• Hyewon Han and
• Jongwoo Son

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 200–216, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.12

• enantioselectivity. Furthermore, a lactam containing a quaternary carbon center (2g) was prepared. However, a lower enantioselectivity was observed for product 2h due to the similar steric environment of the two alkyl substituents. As shown in Figure 1, a catalytic cycle was proposed for the intramolecular C–H

Quantifying the ability of the CF₂H group as a hydrogen bond donor

• Matthew E. Paolella,
• Daniel S. Honeycutt,
• Bradley M. Lipka,
• Jacob M. Goldberg and
• Fang Wang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 189–199, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.11

• , the ΔδDMSO–CD3NO2 values of N-methylated CF2H-containing organic salts are generally smaller than those of the corresponding neutral precursors. This observation contradicts our initial prediction that introducing a quaternary nitrogen would enhance the HB donation ability of the CF2H group. It is

• molecules bearing electron-donating methoxy groups are also weak HB donors (7b vs 1b). Furthermore, the cationic activation of HB donors is negligible when the quaternary nitrogen is para rather than ortho to the CF2H group (4 vs 5). These findings indicate that the presence of either a quaternary nitrogen

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

• esters containing a quaternary stereocenter, and the control of regioselectivity depended on the bulkiness of the substrates. Additionally, the electrochemical system served as an internal syringe pump, generating quinone from hydroquinone in situ through anodic oxidation, which enhanced the

• standard conditions. Subsequently, radical-polar coupling between electrophilic Ni-bound α-carbonyl radical intermediate 45 and remaining nucleophilic Cu-enolate 44 provides a chiral product 42 containing vicinal quaternary stereocenters with high stereoselectivity, and all three possible stereoisomers 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

• transformation produced either the (Ra,Sa)-isomer using pyrrolidine tetrazole catalyst C6 or the (Sa,Sa)-diastereoisomer using quaternary ammonium salt C5 (Scheme 5). Catalyst-controlled formation of twofold and higher-order stereogenicity in axially chiral arenes was discussed in this account article [15

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

• furnish the cycloaddition product 13a. In 2019, Xu’s group published a bifunctional squaramide-catalyzed inverse electron demand aza-Diels–Alder reaction of saccharin-derived 1-azadienes 14 and azlactones 15 [27]. This methodology enables chiral tricyclic derivatives 16 bearing a quaternary amino acid

• bifunctional squaramide-catalyzed asymmetric domino Mannich/formal [4 + 2] cyclization of 2-benzothiazolimines 21 with azlactones 15 [30]. Using cinchona-derived squaramide VII it was possible to obtain 25 different chiral benzothiazolopyrimidines 22 bearing adjacent tertiary and quaternary stereocenters in up

• , Mei and co-workers reported a chiral phosphoric acid-catalyzed asymmetric intermolecular formal (3 + 2) cycloaddition of azoalkenes 53 with azlactones 15 (Scheme 28). This methodology provides fully substituted 4-pyrrolin-2-ones 78 bearing a quaternary carbon atom in high yields (72–95%) and

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

• -butylperoxy radical. Peroxidation of β-naphthols 88 with TBHP under an air atmosphere was explored using CuBr as the catalyst resulting in the quaternary peroxide derivatives 89 in good yields (Scheme 32) [86]. An alternative approach to introducing the tert-butylperoxy moiety into phenols is the use of

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

• in arylfluoroacetamides 8 as final products. Further, Zaheer and group developed an α-arylation of synthetically valuable α-fluoro-α-nitroacetamides (9, R = NO2, Scheme 3) under gentle conditions to form a quaternary benzylic fluorocarbon center. The protocol was found to be effective for the α

• diaryliodonium salts 40 (Scheme 18) [69], which however, does not produce the diarylated compounds. The intramolecular aryl migration from the iodine to the nitrogen leads to a quaternary ammonium ion intermediate A. Consequently, a nucleophilic ring opening of cyclic amine in 42 occurred via cleavage of the

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

Photoredox-catalyzed intramolecular nucleophilic amidation of alkenes with β-lactams

• Valentina Giraldi,
• Giandomenico Magagnano,
• Daria Giacomini,
• Pier Giorgio Cozzi and
• Andrea Gualandi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2461–2468, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.210

• 8d exhibited an enhancement in reaction diastereoselectivity, resulting in the isolation of product 11d with a dr of 6.7:1 in favor of the trans-diastereoisomer. Remarkably, the formation of a fully substituted quaternary center was possible, as observed for the product 11g, where the trans

Asymmetric organocatalytic synthesis of chiral homoallylic amines

• Nikolay S. Kondratyev and
• Andrei V. Malkov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2349–2377, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.201

• simultaneous construction of homoallylamine scaffolds, exemplified by compounds 16–20 with up to 3 contiguous stereocentres, including a quaternary centre in moderate to high yields (60–94%) with 90–99% ee and dr in the range from 97:3 to >99:1 (Scheme 4). The selectivity of the reaction arises from the

• practical potential of the methodology was illustrated by constructing the medicinal chemistry-relevant highly fused spiro compound 140 featuring 5 stereocentres (3 quaternary) in 99% ee and 76% overall yield from achiral 136 and racemic 137 in just 2 steps. Selected substrates were converted to the

• offer access to the homoallylic amine scaffolds, difficult to access by the direct allylation methodologies from the two previous classes. Class (iv) on the other hand, so far is represented by the sole methodology which is capable of producing quaternary stereogenic centres. Despite this methodology is

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

• reactivity by chiral quaternary ammonium salt in the asymmetric variant of the phase-transfer catalysis. Nevertheless, no product was formed despite several conditions being examined. Finally, an attempt to activate the electrophile was performed. We chose iminium salt catalysis particularly employing chiral

Negishi-coupling-enabled synthesis of α-heteroaryl-α-amino acid building blocks for DNA-encoded chemical library applications

• Matteo Gasparetto,
• Balázs Fődi and
• Gellért Sipos

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1922–1932, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.168

• range of less widely applicable strategies have been developed as well [17][18][19][20][21][22]. The above-mentioned methods focus on the synthesis of α-alkyl-amino acids. Moving to α-aryl-amino acids, the Clayden group published an excellent asymmetric α-arylation method to access quaternary amino

Ugi bisamides based on pyrrolyl-β-chlorovinylaldehyde and their unusual transformations

• Alexander V. Tsygankov,
• Vladyslav O. Vereshchak,
• Tetiana O. Savluk,
• Serhiy M. Desenko,
• Valeriia V. Ananieva,
• Oleksandr V. Buravov,
• Yana I. Sakhno,
• Svitlana V. Shishkina and
• Valentyn A. Chebanov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1773–1784, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.156

• initiate the formation of amide 10, the post-Ugi transformation of bisamide 8c was carried out in the presence of Et3N or DIPEA (Table 2, entries 26 and 27). The expected corresponding quaternary ammonium salts were isolated, and no trace of amide 10d was observed. It should also be noted that in the 1H

Syntheses and medicinal chemistry of spiro heterocyclic steroids

• Laura L. Romero-Hernández,
• Ana Isabel Ahuja-Casarín,
• Penélope Merino-Montiel,
• Sara Montiel-Smith,
• José Luis Vega-Báez and
• Jesús Sandoval-Ramírez

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1713–1745, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.152

• reaction times. Notably, 6-endo N-cyclization to form 2-piperidinones was not observed (Scheme 5). Using this protocol, a series of spiro-β-lactams were synthesized, with only the structure of the aryl moiety being varied. It is noteworthy to consider that the formation of two vicinal quaternary chiral

Tetrabutylammonium iodide-catalyzed oxidative α-azidation of β-ketocarbonyl compounds using sodium azide

• Christopher Mairhofer,
• David Naderer and
• Mario Waser

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1510–1517, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.135

• . Keywords: azidation; nitration; organocatalysis; oxidation; quaternary ammonium iodides; Introduction Organic compounds containing an azide functionality are highly valuable synthesis targets that offer considerable potential for various applications and further manipulations [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9

• ][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. Such oxidative coupling strategies of two inherently nucleophilic species allow for the direct utilization of simple starting materials in an efficient manner and especially the use of quaternary ammonium iodides as redox active catalysts has emerged as a powerful

• accessible starting materials. Our group has a longstanding research interest in α-heterofunctionalization reactions under oxidative conditions [37][38][39] and we [30], as well as others [28][29][31], have recently also explored the use of simple quaternary ammonium iodides for oxidative α-azidations of

Towards an asymmetric β-selective addition of azlactones to allenoates

• Behzad Nasiri,
• Ghaffar Pasdar,
• Paul Zebrowski,
• Katharina Röser,
• David Naderer and
• Mario Waser

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1504–1509, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.134

• , Iran 10.3762/bjoc.20.134 Abstract We herein report the asymmetric organocatalytic addition of azlactones to allenoates. Upon using chiral quaternary ammonium salt catalysts, i.e., Maruoka’s binaphthyl-based spirocyclic ammonium salts, the addition of various azlactones to allenoates proceeds in a β

• ; quaternary ammonium salt catalysis; Introduction The development of asymmetric synthesis routes to access non-natural amino acids has for decades been one of the most heavily investigated tasks in organic synthesis and catalysis-oriented research [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. As a consequence

• transformation under asymmetric ammonium salt catalysis [35][36][37][38] and the results of these investigations are outlined in this contribution (Scheme 1C). Results and Discussion We started our investigations by testing the quaternary ammonium salt-catalyzed addition of azlactone 1a to allenoate 3a (Table 1

Electrophotochemical metal-catalyzed synthesis of alkylnitriles from simple aliphatic carboxylic acids

• Yukang Wang,
• Yan Yao and
• Niankai Fu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1497–1503, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.133

• intermediates in organic synthesis for the construction of all-carbon-substituted quaternary centers (Figure 1A). However, conventional methods for the synthesis of tertiary alkylnitriles such as direct functionalization of alkylnitriles [10] and hydrocyanation of alkenes [11][12][13][14] are typically hindered

• functional handles for further elaboration. Notably, tertiary arylacetic acids can also be well tolerated to yield nitriles with quaternary carbon centers in good yields (17 and 18). Simple carboxylic acids without functional groups at the alpha position to stabilize the corresponding carbon centered