Formaldehyde surrogates in multicomponent reactions

• Cecilia I. Attorresi,
• Javier A. Ramírez and
• Bernhard Westermann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 564–595, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.45

• traps the sulfonium ylide (Scheme 16). In an independent work, Mhaske et al. proposed an alternative methodology to furnish β-amino ketone 20a (Scheme 17), using DMSO as a formaldehyde surrogate but with activation via ammonium persulfate (APS), avoiding the use of transition-metal catalysis [51]. In

Red light excitation: illuminating photocatalysis in a new spectrum

• Lucas Fortier,
• Corentin Lefebvre and
• Norbert Hoffmann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 296–326, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.22

• transition-metal catalysis. As the use of osmium catalysts has already demonstrated scalability in industrial applications [22], the introduction of bismuthinidene complexes presents another step forward in expanding the photoredox catalysis toolkit, potentially paving the way for more sustainable and

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

• chemistry. Combining electrochemistry with transition-metal catalysis is a promising and rapidly growing methodology for effectively forming challenging C–C and C–heteroatom bonds in complex molecules in a sustainable manner. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in the combination of

• remains a significant challenge owing to the high energy barrier required for oxidative addition and facile β-hydride elimination [12]. The development of radical approaches facilitated by transition-metal catalysis has provided a promising solution to overcome the limitations of conventional coupling

• achieved by precisely controlling the potential. Additionally, the merging of electrochemistry and transition-metal catalysis offers advantages in controlling substrate activation, intermediate reactivity, and bond formation, as well as facilitating asymmetric transformations. As a result, electrochemical

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

• Research (NCCR) Catalysis, ETH Zurich, Zurich CH-8093, Switzerland 10.3762/bjoc.20.196 Abstract Organocatalysis has established itself as a third pillar of homogeneous catalysis, besides transition metal catalysis and biocatalysis, as its use for enantioselective reactions has gathered significant

• pitfall regarding computational data is its accuracy with respect to the ground truth, in particular for multiple factors relevant throughout catalysis, such as non-covalent interactions (NCIs) for organocatalysis or spin properties for transition metal catalysis [35][36]. While most quantities can in

• transition metal catalysis [46][47][48] and biocatalysis [49][50][51], they are however not common for organocatalysis. Therefore, much research has been devoted to develop models that perform well on the available small data sets [52][53]. 1.2 Representation In order to be processed by any ML model, the

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

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

• electrophotochemical transition metal catalysis [26][27][28][29][30][31] as a unique and powerful synthetic platform for radical decarboxylative functionalization of aliphatic carboxylic acids [32][33][34][35][36][37]. In particular, the commonly required high activation energy for radical decarboxylation was provided

• invention of cooperative catalysis with electrochemical transition metal catalysis, which generally has mild oxidation potential for the generation of persistent radicals in the form of nucleophile-bound metal complexes. We and other groups have successfully applied this reaction design to enantioselective

• metal catalysis as a viable and potentially general approach for reaction discovery and would find broad application in new synthetic contexts. Decarboxylative cyanation: background and our working hypothesis. Scope of electrophotochemical decarboxylative cyanation of aliphatic carboxylic acids. All

Challenge N- versus O-six-membered annulation: FeCl₃-catalyzed synthesis of heterocyclic N,O-aminals

• Giacomo Mari,
• Lucia De Crescentini,
• Gianfranco Favi,
• Fabio Mantellini,
• Diego Olivieri and
• Stefania Santeusanio

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1412–1420, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.123

• remarkable advantages such as an environmentally benign alternative to traditional transition-metal catalysis, a low cost, nontoxicity, good stability, and easy handling [30][31]. Upon increasing the amount of FeCl3 to 20 mol %, the time of the reaction was reduced from 86 to 38 hours, and the yield of 5a

A laterally-fused N-heterocyclic carbene framework from polysubstituted aminoimidazo[5,1-b]oxazol-6-ium salts

• Andrew D. Gillie,
• Matthew G. Wakeling,
• Bethan L. Greene,
• Louise Male and
• Paul W. Davies

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 621–627, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.54

• ; imidazolium; NHC; Introduction Imidazolium-derived nucleophilic heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) have had a sustained impact across the fields of organometallic and main group chemistry, transition-metal catalysis, materials synthesis and organocatalysis [1]. Laterally annellated polycyclic NHCs offer a useful

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

• desaturation of aliphatic carboxylic acids [83]. Initiation by metal catalysts and stoichiometric reductants The activation of NHPI esters under transition metal catalysis without the need of light is also feasible, and generally, two types of coupling reactions can be envisioned. On one hand, the

Catalytic multi-step domino and one-pot reactions

• Svetlana B. Tsogoeva

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 254–256, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.25

• ; multi-step reactions; multicomponent reactions; one-pot synthesis; organocatalysis; tandem reactions; transition-metal-catalysis; The synthesis of pharmaceutical ingredients, natural products, agrochemicals, ligand systems, and building blocks for materials science has reached a high level of

Recent advancements in iodide/phosphine-mediated photoredox radical reactions

• Tinglan Liu,
• Yu Zhou,
• Junhong Tang and
• Chengming Wang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1785–1803, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.131

• materials science. In recent years, the combination of dual photoredox with first-row transition-metal catalysis has emerged as a powerful tool for achieving various cross-coupling reactions involving C–N, C–O, C–S, and other chemical bonds [3][23]. In this context, Guan et al. theoretically designed a

• academic research and industrial applications. As a result, significant efforts have been devoted to the development of various methods for the reduction of nitroarenes [39]. Recent advancements in the catalytic reduction of nitroarenes largely rely on transition-metal catalysis through direct

Consecutive four-component synthesis of trisubstituted 3-iodoindoles by an alkynylation–cyclization–iodination–alkylation sequence

• Nadia Ledermann,
• Alae-Eddine Moubsit and
• Thomas J. J. Müller

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1379–1385, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.99

• transition-metal catalysis [31], we disclosed an activating group-free alkynylation–cyclization sequence to (aza)indoles [32][33] that could be readily concatenated with a concluding N-alkylation of the 7-azaindole intermediate in the sense of consecutive three-component coupling–cyclization–alkylation

Non-noble metal-catalyzed cross-dehydrogenation coupling (CDC) involving ether α-C(sp³)–H to construct C–C bonds

• Hui Yu and
• Feng Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1259–1288, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.94

• is similar to the CDC reaction of simple ethers by transition-metal catalysis. First, Ag triggers the oxidant to produce oxidant radicals, and the corresponding ether radicals are obtained by extraction of H atoms from the ether substrates by the oxidant radicals. Then, the addition of the radicals

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

• widely used as reagents, organocatalysts, or phase transfer reagents [58][59][60][61] were synthesized from aryl chlorides in various yields (20–87%) under mild photocatalytic conditions whereas previously reported protocols typically relied on transition metal catalysis or high temperature processes [62

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

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

• α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds [2]. In particular, the last-mentioned method is highly synthetically relevant. This approach has the advantage of being more selective and affording more molecular complexity in one step. In addition, transition-metal catalysis allows the introduction of

Transition-metal-catalyzed domino reactions of strained bicyclic alkenes

• Austin Pounder,
• Eric Neufeld,
• Peter Myler and
• William Tam

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 487–540, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.38

• transition-metal catalysis. Nickel lies directly above palladium in the periodic table, as such, it readily performs many of the same elementary reactions. Because of their reactive commonalties, nickel is often seen as the budget-friendly replacement; however, this misconception will clearly be refuted in

Transition-metal-catalyzed C–H bond activation as a sustainable strategy for the synthesis of fluorinated molecules: an overview

• Louis Monsigny,
• Floriane Doche and
• Tatiana Besset

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 448–473, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.35

• [6][7][8][9][10][11]. Among them [2][5][12][13][14][15][16][17][18], the direct functionalization of a simple C–H bond by transition-metal catalysis [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] became an important tool offering new

• in the field have been interested in the design of original methodologies for the trifluoromethylthiolation and more recently the difluoromethylthiolation of various compounds by transition-metal catalysis [78]. Moreover, a recent interest was devoted to the trifluoromethylselenolation reaction as

• moderate yields. Finally, the SeCF3-containing β-methylacrylamide 40n was also obtained in 37% yield. II. Transition-metal-catalyzed fluoroalkoxylation of (hetero)arenes by C–H bond activation II.1) Fluoroalkoxylation of aromatic C(sp2)–H bonds by transition-metal catalysis Over the last years, key

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

• for catalysis, due to the generally higher abundance and lower toxicity of these elements. Group 13 elements have a rich catalogue of stoichiometric addition reactions to unsaturated bonds but cannot undergo the redox chemistry which underpins transition-metal catalysis. Group 13 exchange reactions

Strategies to access the [5-8] bicyclic core encountered in the sesquiterpene, diterpene and sesterterpene series

• Cécile Alleman,
• Charlène Gadais,
• Laurent Legentil and
• François-Hugues Porée

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 245–281, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.23

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

• compounds to molecules containing an enone fragment. Cycloaddition reactions involving diazo and enone moieties are usually carried out using transition-metal catalysis [18][19][20], with catalyst-free reactions being carried out only with the participation of reactive unsubstituted diazomethane [21][22][23

An alternative C–P cross-coupling route for the synthesis of novel V-shaped aryldiphosphonic acids

• Stephen J. I. Shearan,
• Enrico Andreoli and
• Marco Taddei

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1518–1523, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.160

• three novel aryl diphosphonate esters which were subsequently transformed to phosphonic acids through silylation and hydrolysis. Keywords: arylphosphonic acids; cross-coupling reaction; phosphonate esters; transition-metal catalysis; Introduction Phosphonates and phosphonic acids are a very

Molecular and macromolecular electrochemistry: synthesis, mechanism, and redox properties

• Shinsuke Inagi and
• Mahito Atobe

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1505–1506, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.158

• , polymer electrolyte membrane electrolysis technology, and new methods coupled with photoredox catalysts or transition metal catalysis, resulting in remarkable progress in organic electrosynthetic processes. Theoretical calculations have also led to a better understanding of the electron transfer behavior

1,4,6,10-Tetraazaadamantanes (TAADs) with N-amino groups: synthesis and formation of boron chelates and host–guest complexes

• Artem N. Semakin,
• Ivan S. Golovanov,
• Yulia V. Nelyubina and
• Alexey Yu. Sukhorukov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1424–1434, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.148

• Tripodal molecules are widely used as chelating ligands for transition metal catalysis [1][2][3], sensors for ions and small molecules [4][5], reagents for surface grafting [6], building blocks for the construction of supramolecular structures [7], polycyclic cage molecules [8], and porous materials [9

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

• relies upon stoichiometric reagents or transition-metal catalysis. Herein, a borane-catalysed hydroboration of nitriles to give primary amines is reported. Good yields (48–95%) and chemoselectivity (e.g., ester, nitro, sulfone) were observed. DFT calculations and mechanistic studies support the proposal

• research into the development of new catalytic methodologies, specifically those that use Earth-abundant and low toxicity elements, as an alternative to transition-metal catalysis [9][10]. Using metal-free catalytic systems, including boron-based catalysts, circumvents some of the issues associated with