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

• Carlos R. Azpilcueta-Nicolas Jean-Philip Lumb Department of Chemistry, McGill University, 801 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec H3A 0B8, Canada 10.3762/bjoc.20.35 Abstract Due to their ease of preparation, stability, and diverse reactivity, N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI) esters have found

• many applications as radical precursors. Mechanistically, NHPI esters undergo a reductive decarboxylative fragmentation to provide a substrate radical capable of engaging in diverse transformations. Their reduction via single-electron transfer (SET) can occur under thermal, photochemical, or

• of parameters with which to control reactivity. In this perspective, we provide an overview of the different mechanisms for radical reactions involving NHPI esters, with an emphasis on recent applications in radical additions, cyclizations and decarboxylative cross-coupling reactions. Within these

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

Visible-light-mediated copper photocatalysis for organic syntheses

• Yajing Zhang,
• Qian Wang,
• Zongsheng Yan,
• Donglai Ma and
• Yuguang Zheng

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 2520–2542, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.169

• [100] groups reported that NHPI esters (67, 68) have been used as alkyl radical precursors in decarboxylative coupling reactions. These reactions feature a wide substrate scope. Primary, secondary, and tertiary alkyl carboxylic acids exhibit good yield, such as decarboxylative coupling reactions

Heterogeneous photocatalytic cyanomethylarylation of alkenes with acetonitrile: synthesis of diverse nitrogenous heterocyclic compounds

• Guanglong Pan,
• Qian Yang,
• Wentao Wang,
• Yurong Tang and
• Yunfei Cai

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1171–1180, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.89

• the generation of cyanomethyl radicals from readily available acetonitrile has not been reported yet. Herein, we disclose a CN-K-catalyzed cyanomethylarylation of both unactivated and activated alkenes with acetonitrile utilizing readily available alkyl N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI) esters as the

• CN-K-based heterogeneous protocol for the cyanomethylarylation of N-arylallylamines with acetonitrile. Pleasingly, after the systematic evaluation of various NHPI esters, which are easily prepared from readily available carboxylic acids, the yield of the product 3a could be increased to 75% when

Recent advances in Cu-catalyzed C(sp³)–Si and C(sp³)–B bond formation

• Balaram S. Takale,
• Ruchita R. Thakore,
• Elham Etemadi-Davan and
• Bruce H. Lipshutz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 691–737, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.67

• explored on redox-active alkyl esters derived from N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI, 37), in which case the reactions proceeded through a similar radical pathway due to, in part, the alkyl radical surrogate nature of the NHPI esters. The radical generated via decarboxylation of these esters is easily trapped by