Continuous-flow-enabled intensification in nitration processes: a review of technological developments and practical applications over the past decade

• Feng Zhou,
• Chuansong Duanmu,
• Yanxing Li,
• Jin Li,
• Haiqing Xu,
• Pan Wang and
• Kai Zhu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1678–1699, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.132

• stainless steel demonstrates corrosion resistance in individual exposures to concentrated nitric acid or sulfuric acid due to passivation layer formation. However, during nitration using both acids simultaneously, progressive HNO3 consumption and water generation may reduce acid concentrations below

• temperature, nitrating reagents selection, molar ratio of nitric acid to substrate, molar ratio of nitric acid to sulfuric acid, water content, as systematically discussed in Table 1 (vide infra). The residence time (usually 0–120 s) determines reaction completion, requiring balance between conversion rate

• suppressing byproduct formation from over-sulfonation and minimizing environmental burdens through reduced waste acid discharge. Water content governs the formation equilibrium of nitronium ions (NO2+), the electrophilic nitrating species, thereby dictating the overall reaction rates. In nitration processes

Structural analysis of stereoselective galactose pyruvylation toward the synthesis of bacterial capsular polysaccharides

• Tsun-Yi Chiang,
• Mei-Huei Lin,
• Chun-Wei Chang,
• Jinq-Chyi Lee and
• Cheng-Chung Wang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1671–1677, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.131

• a = 16.1017(4) Å, b = 7.7608(2) Å, c = 28.8344(8) Å, and β = 93.3680(10)°. Additionally, the presence of lattice water greatly influenced the molecular packing. The hydrogen bond (H–O–H) lengths in this lattice water ranged from 1.923 to 2.204 Å (Figure 2b). The pyruvylated galactose 6 was utilized

Influence of the cation in hypophosphite-mediated catalyst-free reductive amination

• Natalia Lebedeva,
• Fedor Kliuev,
• Olesya Zvereva,
• Klim Biriukov,
• Evgeniya Podyacheva,
• Maria Godovikova,
• Oleg I. Afanasyev and
• Denis Chusov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1661–1670, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.130

• the water content in the reaction medium did not exceed 0.7 equiv. In case of LiH2PO2 or NaH2PO2 the model amine formed with similar high yields of the target product (65–70%) (Table 1, lines 2 and 3) both in the presence and in the absence of H3PO2. On the contrary, Rb, K and Cs in the absence of

• the further study. Using the optimal K2CO3/H3PO2 ratio 0.125/0.5, it was found that 78% yield of the model amine could be reached at lower temperature (110 °C) under prolonged reaction time (Scheme 2). The water content in the system had a crucial influence on the reaction outcome: an excess of the

• water led to the drop of the yield while comparably low amounts (less than 0.7 equiv) were favorable (see Table S2 in Supporting Information File 1). This influence could be explained by hindering of the iminium ion formation in the presence of water. Thus, the optimization of the reaction conditions

Facile synthesis of hydantoin/1,2,4-oxadiazoline spiro-compounds via 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of nitrile oxides to 5-iminohydantoins

• Juliana V. Petrova,
• Varvara T. Tkachenko,
• Victor A. Tafeenko,
• Anna S. Pestretsova,
• Vadim S. Pokrovsky,
• Maxim E. Kukushkin and
• Elena K. Beloglazkina

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1552–1560, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.118

• generated nitrile oxide seems to be less significant. It was found that the low solubility of products containing aromatic substituents in non-polar solvents allows for their isolation by washing the crude reaction mixture with diethyl ether to remove organic impurities and then with water to eliminate

• cases, after the reaction time had expired, the solvent was removed in vacuo. The residue was washed with 2–3 small portions (0.5–1 mL) of Et2O and water giving a solid precipitate of the product (compounds 5a–d, 5f–h and 5k–l). Compounds 5i and 5j were isolated from the reaction mixtures by column

Azide–alkyne cycloaddition (click) reaction in biomass-derived solvent Cyrene^TM under one-pot conditions

• Zoltán Medgyesi and
• László T. Mika

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1544–1551, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.117

• pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) [8][9][10][11] and pesticides [12], or metabolic labeling molecules in plant science [13], to name a few important applications. The CuAAC reactions can be easily carried out under mild reaction conditions and exhibit excellent functional group tolerance [7]. While water has

• been characterized as an ideal solvent for click reactions, the limited solubility of most organic substrates could limit its application. Thus, the transformations of either water-insoluble or solid compounds require a solvent to establish high reaction performance, i.e. homogeneous solutions with low

• obtained for Cu sources in different solvent systems [40][41]. Although CuAAC reactions can be efficiently performed in water, the moisture content of the organic reaction environment could have a significant effect on the efficiency of a transition-metal-catalyzed reaction. Because CyreneTM is fully

Calcium waste as a catalyst in the transesterification for demanding esters: scalability perspective

• Anton N. Potorochenko and
• Konstantin S. Rodygin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1520–1527, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.114

• the ratio of the total weight of waste to the total weight of the product, is 0.89 for this process. On the other hand, to obtain a ton of CaO from carbide slag, 0.32 tons of water is released. The E-factor for this approach is 0.32, which is approximately 2.8 times less than the approach of obtaining

Ambident reactivity of enolizable 5-mercapto-1H-tetrazoles in trapping reactions with in situ-generated thiocarbonyl S-methanides derived from sterically crowded cycloaliphatic thioketones

• Grzegorz Mlostoń,
• Małgorzata Celeda,
• Marcin Palusiak,
• Heinz Heimgartner,
• Marta Denel-Bobrowska and
• Agnieszka B. Olejniczak

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1508–1519, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.113

• : To a magnetically stirred solution of the thioketone 7c (833.0 mg, 4 mmol) in 5 mL pentane, placed in a water/ice bath, dry solution of diazomethane in pentane was added dropwise until the red color of starting 7c vanished. The colorless solution was cooled down in a dry ice container, and after few

Photoredox-catalyzed arylation of isonitriles by diaryliodonium salts towards benzamides

• Nadezhda M. Metalnikova,
• Nikita S. Antonkin,
• Tuan K. Nguyen,
• Natalia S. Soldatova,
• Alexander V. Nyuchev,
• Mikhail A. Kinzhalov and
• Pavel S. Postnikov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1480–1488, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.110

• -water ratios to establish initial conditions (Supporting Information File 1, 2.1 Solvent screening). Diphenyliodonium triflate (1a) and 1-isocyano-4-methylbenzene were used as model substrates. Taking into account the possibility of iodonium salt decomposition under irradiation we carried out an initial

• DIPEA as an organic base but the yield of 2aa was very low and we observed a range of byproducts, mainly amine addition instead of water (see Supporting Information File 1, 2.2 Preliminary and Additional Experiments, Figures S5 and S6). Afterwards, we evaluated the other crucial parameters for

• that bulky isonitriles effectively shield the radical or cationic centers in intermediates X1 or X2, thereby preventing multiple additions of isonitrile to give the highest yields for benzamides 2be and 2ge among the scope of isonitriles. In the final step of the reaction, the addition of a water

Microwave-enhanced additive-free C–H amination of benzoxazoles catalysed by supported copper

• Andrei Paraschiv,
• Valentina Maruzzo,
• Filippo Pettazzi,
• Stefano Magliocco,
• Paolo Inaudi,
• Daria Brambilla,
• Gloria Berlier,
• Giancarlo Cravotto and
• Katia Martina

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1462–1476, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.108

• , and the organic phase was extracted with 3.5 M aqueous ammonia solution (1 × 10 mL) and distilled water (2 × 10 mL). The organic phase was washed with brine, dried over sodium sulphate, and filtered. The solvent was removed under reduced pressure to obtain a pure product. Where required, the residue

• h, and the catalyst was then removed by filtration and recovered where required. The solvent was evaporated under reduced pressure. The resulting residue was dissolved in 10 mL of CHCl3, and the organic phase was extracted with distilled water (2 × 10 mL). The organic phase was washed with brine

Tautomerism and switching in 7-hydroxy-8-(azophenyl)quinoline and similar compounds

• Lidia Zaharieva,
• Vera Deneva,
• Fadhil S. Kamounah,
• Nikolay Vassilev,
• Ivan Angelov,
• Michael Pittelkow and
• Liudmil Antonov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1404–1421, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.105

• addition of water to acetonitrile (Figure 3) lead to increase of the content of the keto tautomers, but the enol form is still present. As suggested by the theoretically predicted chemical shifts of the tautomeric proton (Table 1), the use of NMR could shed more light on the tautomeric composition in

• solution during 20 min. The resulting red-orange mixture was stirred at 0 °C for 2 h, and at rt for 15 h. The mixture was neutralized with 1 N aqueous sodium hydroxide, filtered, washed with cold water (5 mL) and dried under vacuum. The dark orange crude material was purified by flash column chromatography

• , 3.5 mmol) and 1 N aqueous HCl solution (12.0 mL) and methanol (7.0 mL). The mixture was stirred at rt for 2 h, then cooled in an ice bath to 0 °C, and treated slowly with a cold solution of sodium nitrite (0.38 g, 5.5 mmol) in distilled water (3.0 mL). The mixture was left stirring at 0 °C for 2 h. In

N-Salicyl-amino acid derivatives with antiparasitic activity from Pseudomonas sp. UIAU-6B

• Joy E. Rajakulendran,
• Emmanuel Tope Oluwabusola,
• Michela Cerone,
• Terry K. Smith,
• Olusoji O. Adebisi,
• Adefolalu Adedotun,
• Gagan Preet,
• Sylvia Soldatou,
• Hai Deng,
• Rainer Ebel and
• Marcel Jaspars

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1388–1396, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.103

• dried under reduced pressure, to yield 7.5 g of crude extract. Fractionation and isolation of compounds 1–4 The crude extract (7.5 g) was subjected to fractionation by Kupchan partitioning [33]. The extract was dissolved in water (300 mL) and dichloromethane (300 mL × 3) and placed in a separating

High-pressure activation for the solvent- and catalyst-free syntheses of heterocycles, pharmaceuticals and esters

• Kelsey Plasse,
• Valerie Wright,
• Guoshu Xie,
• R. Bernadett Vlocskó,
• Alexander Lazarev and
• Béla Török

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1374–1387, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.102

• generation. Using water as pressure transmitting fluid, the reaction vessel is immersed in water minimizing fire hazard during the reactions. Finally, most procedures can be carried out at ambient temperature, improving safety and energy efficiency. Energy efficiency is also supported by the nature of the

• instrument is depicted in Figure 1. The core of the instrument is the intensifier which generates the required pressure by amplifying the relatively low pressure (about 140 psi) supplied by an air compressor. The intensifier pressurizes the water in the pressure chamber where the sealed samples are placed

• . Water is used as a pressure transmitting medium that has relatively low compressibility, readily available, and non-toxic. Results and Discussion HHP-assisted synthesis of 1,3-dihydrobenzimidazoles Heterocycles are extremely versatile compounds and are used as building blocks for fine chemicals and

Optimized synthesis of aroyl-S,N-ketene acetals by omission of solubilizing alcohol cosolvents

• Julius Krenzer and
• Thomas J. J. Müller

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1201–1206, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.97

• -on of emission upon induced aggregation in alcohol–water mixtures [1]. This chromophore class has been extensively developed in recent years, even to aggregation-induced emissive (AIE) multichromophores [2] and even bichromophoric fluorimetric sensors [3][4]. The retrosynthesis of the title compounds

A multicomponent reaction-initiated synthesis of imidazopyridine-fused isoquinolinones

• Ashutosh Nath,
• John Mark Awad and
• Wei Zhang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1161–1169, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.92

• intermediate 7, the carbonyl oxygen interacts with AlCl₃, enhancing the electrophilicity and promoting the rearrangement to form stable oxonium ions. The removal of water from 7 is facilitated by protonation, producing reactive carbocations which undergo dehydrative aromatization to produce products 8

Investigations of amination reactions on an antimalarial 1,2,4-triazolo[4,3-a]pyrazine scaffold

• Henry S. T. Smith,
• Ben Giuliani,
• Kanchana Wijesekera,
• Kah Yean Lum,
• Sandra Duffy,
• Aaron Lock,
• Jonathan M. White,
• Vicky M. Avery and
• Rohan A. Davis

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1126–1134, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.90

• (Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany) Arium™ Pro VF ultrapure water system. Synthetic reagents were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA) and used without further purification. The starting material, 5-chloro-3-(4-chlorophenyl)-[1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]pyrazine (1), was previously synthesised and

Gold extraction at the molecular level using α- and β-cyclodextrins

• Susana Santos Braga

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1116–1125, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.89

• accumulation in soil and water [17]. The shortage of natural resources in tandem with the increasing market demand for gold are driving the need to obtain this commodity from low grade ores, typically containing less than 1 wt % in gold, materials of difficult extraction, such as the gold-bearing silicates and

• -former, that is, a substance that causes the precipitation of the product as a solid. In this context, the addition of anti-solvents to aqueous solutions is a common strategy in precipitate formation. In 2023, the same research group showed that various solvents, some miscible with water and others not

A versatile route towards 6-arylpipecolic acids

• Erich Gebel,
• Cornelia Göcke,
• Carolin Gruner and
• Norbert Sewald

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1104–1115, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.88

• amount of water was added to activate the boronic species and to dissolve the inorganic base under otherwise inert conditions. The reaction mixture was then stirred at room temperature overnight. Under these conditions, a variety of boronic acids with different steric and electronic properties was

Salen–scandium(III) complex-catalyzed asymmetric (3 + 2) annulation of aziridines and aldehydes

• Linqiang Wang and
• Jiaxi Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1087–1094, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.86

• , dried over sodium sulfate, and freshly distilled prior to use. All solid aldehydes were used after recrystallization from petroleum ether (PE, 60–90 °C fraction) or a mixture of ethanol and water. All dialkyl 3-aryl-1-sulfonylaziridine-2,2-dicarboxylates 1 were synthesized by previously reported

Recent advances in synthetic approaches for bioactive cinnamic acid derivatives

• Betty A. Kustiana,
• Galuh Widiyarti and
• Teni Ernawati

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1031–1086, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.85

• 2.1.1 Stoichiometric reagents: Anhydride formation is one reliable method to activate the carboxylic group of cinnamic acid. For instance, in 2020, Longobardo and DellaGreca utilized isobutyl chloroformate in water to construct an O-protected amide derivative 2 of hydroxycinnamic acid 1 with an

• excellent yield (Scheme 2) [32]. The formed anhydride 3 was smoothly converted to the amide at room temperature. This method provides a green approach by allowing cinnamic acid derivatization in water as a benign solvent. Similarly, Rajendran and Rajan (2023) reported a one-pot transamidation of cinnamamide

• -branched (L/B) selectivity of >20:1. The reaction involves the formation of palladium hydride (Pd–H) 270 as the key species followed by alkyne and CO insertion reactions via 271 and 272 (Scheme 68A) [116]. On the one hand, Jia and co-workers (2021) utilized environmentally benign water as the hydrogen

Biobased carbon dots as photoreductants – an investigation by using triarylsulfonium salts

• Valentina Benazzi,
• Arianna Bini,
• Ilaria Bertuol,
• Mariangela Novello,
• Federica Baldi,
• Matteo Hoch,
• Alvise Perosa and
• Stefano Protti

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1024–1030, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.84

• carbon nanomaterials category in view of their stability, water affinity/dispersibility, and low toxicity [1][2][3][4]. Such nanomaterials significantly absorb in the 280–350 nm region due to a wide range of π–π* (C=C) and n–π* (C=O) transitions in both the core and on the surface of the particles. CDs

• dissolved or suspended in water, and the resulting mixture transferred to an autoclave and treated at a temperature ranging 140–200 °C; the treatment yields CDs with an amorphous structure. The synthetic procedure, as well as the structural and morphological characteristics of these materials, have been

• types of CDs and aims to promote the use of these sustainable materials, it opens the way for further exploitation of such compounds in visible-light-catalyzed reactions. UV–vis spectra of the CDs. All the measurements have been performed in water, except for CD-a-GLU, where a H2O/acetonitrile 1:1

On the photoluminescence in triarylmethyl-centered mono-, di-, and multiradicals

• Daniel Straub,
• Markus Gross,
• Mona E. Arnold,
• Julia Zolg and
• Alexander J. C. Kuehne

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 964–998, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.80

Recent advances in controllable/divergent synthesis

• Jilei Cao,
• Leiyang Bai and
• Xuefeng Jiang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 890–914, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.73

• , tetrabutylammonium iodide (TBAI), and water significantly accelerated aryne generation, thereby increasing its local concentration. This favored aryne coordination to the palladium center, followed by CO insertion and reductive elimination to furnish phenanthridinones. In contrast, when dppm was introduced

Unraveling cooperative interactions between complexed ions in dual-host strategy for cesium salt separation

• Zhihua Liu,
• Ya-Zhi Chen,
• Ji Wang,
• Qingling Nie,
• Wei Zhao and
• Biao Wu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 845–853, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.68

• that a tripodal hexaurea receptor L (Figure 1b) could selectively and reversibly extract sulfate and phosphate anions from water into organic phase (under pH control) [30][31][32][33]. Single crystal structures of the receptor–K2SO4 complex in the presence of 18-crown-6 clearly displayed ion-dipole

Chitosan-supported CuI-catalyzed cascade reaction of 2-halobenzoic acids and amidines for the synthesis of quinazolinones

• Xuhong Zhao,
• Weishuang Li,
• Mengli Yang,
• Bojie Li,
• Yaoyao Zhang,
• Lizhen Huang and
• Lei Zhu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 839–844, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.67

• ). Notably, the reaction was also successful in water, affording the target product in moderate yield (Table 1, entry 5, 51% yield). Next, to further improve the yield, a mixed solvent of iPrOH and H2O was examined. The reaction conducted with a solvent ratio of iPrOH/H2O = 4:1 gave an 83% yield (Table 1

Substituent effects in N-acetylated phenylazopyrazole photoswitches

• Radek Tovtik,
• Dennis Marzin,
• Pia Weigel,
• Stefano Crespi and
• Nadja A. Simeth

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 830–838, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.66

• classical azobenzenes. Heterocyclic rings offer, for example, enhanced polarity, electron pairs for metal coordination [27], better water-solubility, and variable pKa [28][29]. Special attention has been given to 5-membered N-heterocyclic azobenzenes, which not only maintain the azobenzenes properties but