C2 to C6 biobased carbonyl platforms for fine chemistry

• Jingjing Jiang,
• Muhammad Noman Haider Tariq,
• Florence Popowycz,
• Yanlong Gu and
• Yves Queneau

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2103–2172, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.165

• reaction, while the catalyst Lewis base sites produce fructose (Scheme 19) [93]. Shi et al. [94] reported a novel strategy to synthesize glycolic acid (GA), a very important building block of biodegradable polymers as already stressed in the C2 section. The catalytic one-pot synthesis of GA and co

Chiral phosphoric acid-catalyzed asymmetric synthesis of helically chiral, planarly chiral and inherently chiral molecules

• Wei Liu and
• Xiaoyu Yang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1864–1889, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.145

• catalytic sites. The OH group on the phosphorus atom functions as a Brønsted acid site, while P=O serves as a Lewis base site, which enables the simultaneous activation of both nucleophiles and electrophiles in one reaction (Figure 1). The chiral properties of the catalysts are derived from the chiral

Catalytic asymmetric reactions of isocyanides for constructing non-central chirality

• Jia-Yu Liao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1648–1660, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.129

• . Moreover, an axially chiral tertiary alcohol-phosphine 42 was prepared from 39a through a three-step procedure including N-methylation, reduction of phosphine oxide, and Grignard addition to ester. Subsequently, 42 was applied as a bifunctional Lewis base organocatalyst in the formal [4 + 2] cyclization

Oxetanes: formation, reactivity and total syntheses of natural products

• Peter Gabko,
• Martin Kalník and
• Maroš Bella

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1324–1373, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.101

• tetrahedral value which results in a large ring strain of 25.5 kcal/mol, comparable to oxirane (27.3 kcal/mol) and much greater than tetrahydrofuran (5.6 kcal/mol) [4]. Moreover, the strained C–O–C bond angle effectively exposes the oxygen lone pairs, making oxetane a strong hydrogen-bond acceptor and Lewis

• base [5]. In fact, its hydrogen-bond-accepting ability is even stronger than that of the other 3-, 5- and 6-membered cyclic ethers, as well as the carbonyls of aldehydes, ketones, esters and carbonates [6][7][8]. The only better carbonyl-based hydrogen-bond acceptors are amides, carbamates and ureas [9

New advances in asymmetric organocatalysis II

• Radovan Šebesta

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

• ]. The enantioselective addition of propargyltrichlorosilane to aldehydes was studied by Prabhakar, Takenaka, and co-workers. This transformation was catalyzed by a biisoquinoline N,N’-dioxide catalyst, which acted as a chiral Lewis base [26]. Torres-Oya and Zurro reviewed the recent developments in

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

• studies by the groups of Akiyama and Terada in 2004 [14][15], many excellent results have been achieved by applying BINOL-derived phosphoric acids, which can act as proton donor and acceptor [16][17][18][19], possessing both Brønsted acid and Lewis base character [20]. Substantial effort has been invested

Molecular diversity of the reactions of MBH carbonates of isatins and various nucleophiles

• Zi-Ying Xiao,
• Jing Sun and
• Chao-Guo Yan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 286–295, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.21

• ]. In the presence of a Lewis base, MBH carbonates of isatins can be easily converted to activated allylic ylides, which in turn can undergo allylic substitution and annulation reactions to give diverse 3-substituted and spirooxindole derivatives [36][37][38][39][40][41]. Inspired by these elegant

• derivatives. At first, a Lewis base attack at the α-position of the MBH nitrile of isatin resulted in the intermediate A with elimination of carbon dioxide and tert-butoxide ion. Secondly, the product 3 was produced by the SN2 substitution of the Lewis base by the arylamine. When MBH maleimides of isatin were

• addition of Lewis base is needed. When triphenylphosphine or tri(n-butyl)phosphine were involved in the reaction, the similar SN2’ substitution of tri(n-butyl)phosphine with the elimination of carbon dioxide and tert-butoxide anion gives the phosphonium salt C. Then, the deprotonation of phosphonium salt C

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

• organocatalyst acts as a Lewis base forming an enamine which raises the HOMO energy of the dienophile, while the thiourea moiety acts as a Lewis acid, lowering the LUMO level of the diene (Scheme 1). A confined transition state is formed providing a high enantiocontrol of the reaction. In 2016, Shi and co

• concerted mechanism which could be explained by the transition state depicted in Scheme 16: the chiral phosphoric acid could act as a bifunctional catalyst; the OH group acts as a Brønsted acid activating the 1-azadiene, while the phosphoryl oxygen atom activates the enecarbamates as a Lewis base. In order

• authors proposed a possible mechanism for the reaction which is depicted in Scheme 20. The chiral phosphoric acid activates both the azoalkene acting as a Brønsted acid and the indole acting as a Lewis base promoting a Friedel–Crafts-type 1,4-addition of the indole to the azoalkene. In this manner, a

Advances in the use of metal-free tetrapyrrolic macrocycles as catalysts

• Mandeep K. Chahal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3085–3112, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.257

• -alkyloxazolidinones, eliminating the need for any Lewis base or additives [74]. This represented a significant advancement over their previously reported work. They used six different protonated porphyrins as catalysts: TPPH4X2 (18a, X = Cl; 18b, X = Br; 18c, X = I), and TPPH4(RCOO)2 (18d, R = CF3; 18e, R = ClCH2

Enantioselective regiospecific addition of propargyltrichlorosilane to aldehydes catalyzed by biisoquinoline N,N’-dioxide

• Noble Brako,
• Sreerag Moorkkannur Narayanan,
• Amber Burns,
• Layla Auter,
• Valentino Cesiliano,
• Rajeev Prabhakar and
• Norito Takenaka

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3069–3076, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.255

• % yield with 61:39–92:8 enantiomeric ratios. Furthermore, possible mechanisms of propargyl–allenyl isomerization of propargyltrichlorosilane were computationally investigated. Keywords: α-allenic alcohol; computational chemistry; Lewis base catalysis; organocatalysis; propargyltrichlorosilane

• ][34]. In sharp contrast, propargyltrichlorosilane is configurationally stable and only reacts through the SE2’ mechanism under Lewis base-catalyzed conditions [43][44][45], although it was reported that distillation of propargyltrichlorosilane substantially isomerizes it to the thermodynamically more

Computational design for enantioselective CO₂ capture: asymmetric frustrated Lewis pairs in epoxide transformations

• Maxime Ferrer,
• Iñigo Iribarren,
• Tim Renningholtz,
• Ibon Alkorta and
• Cristina Trujillo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2668–2681, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.224

• colleagues [1]. These compounds, which feature a Lewis acid (LA) and a Lewis base (LB), whose interaction is hindered by bulky substituents or chain strain, have garnered significant attention. Initially explored for their ability to trap small molecules [2][3], such as H2 [4], CO2 [5][6][7], N2O [8][9], and

• , depicted by the purple points in Figure 1B. Results and Discussion The following nomenclature will be used during the volcano plot analysis: FX_LBLA_S1_S2 where X is the label of the family (1, 2, 3, 5, or 6), LB is the Lewis base considered (N or P), LA is the Lewis acid (in this particular study only B

• intermediate undergoes reorganization, leading to Min2. Surprisingly, family 5, having phosphorus as the Lewis base, presents a different reactivity from the other families (Figure S3, Supporting Information File 1). Compounds F5_PB_H and F5_PB_CF3 react following mechanism 3 (Figure 5C), but the reaction

Transition-metal-free synthesis of arylboronates via thermal generation of aryl radicals from triarylbismuthines in air

• Yuki Yamamoto,
• Yuki Konakazawa,
• Kohsuke Fujiwara and
• Akiya Ogawa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2577–2584, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.216

• generating a boron radical (pinB•) by photoirradiation of (Bpin)2 and found that the addition of (PhS)2 was effective in generating the boron radical [30]. We therefore investigated this reaction by adding (PhS)2 as a Lewis base, but the yield of 3a was not improved and (PhS)2 was recovered almost

Evaluating the halogen bonding strength of a iodoloisoxazolium(III) salt

• Dominik L. Reinhard,
• Anna Schmidt,
• Marc Sons,
• Julian Wolf,
• Elric Engelage and
• Stefan M. Huber

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2401–2407, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.204

• in a Mannich reaction [4]. In 2018, our group showed in a proof-of-principle study [5] that the Lewis acid catalysis by DAI salts is based on halogen bonding (XB), an interaction between a Lewis base (XB acceptor) and an electrophilic halogen atom in the Lewis acid (XB donor) [6][7][8][9][10]. In

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

Efficacy of radical reactions of isocyanides with heteroatom radicals in organic synthesis

• Akiya Ogawa and
• Yuki Yamamoto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2114–2128, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.182

• -covalent electron pair, making it impossible to generate boron radicals by homolysis via the n–σ* transition. In addition, since boron has an empty orbital, it forms ate complexes when Lewis base compounds coexist. As the result, the boryl groups of the ate complexes are bulky and often cause steric

Synthesis of indano[60]fullerene thioketone and its application in organic solar cells

• Yong-Chang Zhai,
• Shimon Oiwa,
• Shinobu Aoyagi,
• Shohei Ohno,
• Tsubasa Mikie,
• Jun-Zhuo Wang,
• Hirofumi Amada,
• Koki Yamanaka,
• Kazuhira Miwa,
• Naoyuki Imai,
• Takeshi Igarashi,
• Itaru Osaka and
• Yutaka Matsuo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1270–1277, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.109

• . Additionally, the ketone structure acts as a Lewis base, resulting in a passivation effect on Pb2+ [19]. In this study, we designed and synthesized indano[60]fullerene thioketones (FIDSs) with various para-substituents. The vacuum-deposition performance and thermal stability of FIDS were assessed by both

Carbonylative synthesis and functionalization of indoles

• Alex De Salvo,
• Raffaella Mancuso and
• Xiao-Feng Wu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 973–1000, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.87

• protocol the use of a Lewis base such as SnCl2 was not required and the reaction took place under milder conditions using Pd(OAc)2 as catalyst and PPh3 as ligand. The reaction was performed at 70 °C for 15–48 hours, under 4 bar of CO in a DMF/MeOH 2:1 mixture giving the indole derivatives without obvious

Ligand effects, solvent cooperation, and large kinetic solvent deuterium isotope effects in gold(I)-catalyzed intramolecular alkene hydroamination

• Ruichen Lan,
• Brock Yager,
• Yoonsun Jee,
• Cynthia S. Day and
• Amanda C. Jones

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 479–496, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.43

• effect of MeOH co-solvent on the 1a → 3a transformation was due to its role as a hydrogen bonding donor (proton source), or due to its role as a hydrogen bonding acceptor (Lewis base) [44]. To this end, we examined the impact of different alcohols (varied acidity and polarity) and different non-protic

• nitrogen. Thus, the rate of intramolecular hydroamination is enhanced by a more nucleophilic nitrogen. Another qualitative interpretation is that rates are enhanced by carbonyl basicity. Gas-phase basicity measurements indicate that ureas are more basic than amides [47][50], and here the most Lewis base

Using the phospha-Michael reaction for making phosphonium phenolate zwitterions

• Matthias R. Steiner,
• Max Schmallegger,
• Larissa Donner,
• Johann A. Hlina,
• Christoph Marschner,
• Judith Baumgartner and
• Christian Slugovc

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 41–51, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.6

• reactive in chloroform solution, while in methanol the corresponding phosphonium phenolate is formed. Keywords: Lewis-base catalysis; Michael acceptor reactivity; phospha-Michael reaction; phosphonium phenolate zwitterion; Introduction Organocatalysis has emerged in recent years as a valuable and

• powerful tool for performing organic reactions [1] and polymerizations [2]. In this context phosphines have proven to be potent Lewis-base catalysts [3][4] for a variety of reactions [5], including but not limited to Rauhut–Currier [6], Morita–Baylis–Hillman [7], and Michael reactions [8][9][10]. In all

• -carbonyl-based Michael acceptors. Results and Discussion Synthesis During our endeavors to identify potent Lewis-base catalysts for the oxa-Michael reaction [13][14], the triarylphosphine 1 was tested in a model reaction (2 equiv allyl alcohol, 1 equiv acrylonitrile, 0.05 equiv 1). However, no conversion

Construction of diazepine-containing spiroindolines via annulation reaction of α-halogenated N-acylhydrazones and isatin-derived MBH carbonates

• Xing Liu,
• Wenjing Shi,
• Jing Sun and
• Chao-Guo Yan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1923–1932, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.143

• depicted in Scheme 5. At first, MBH carbonates of isatin 2 is attacked at the α-position by the Lewis base to give the ammonium salt A with elimination of carbon dioxide and a tert-butoxide ion. Secondly, the ammonium salt A is deprotonated by the in situ generated tert-butoxide ion to give the allylic

• elimination of a proton and the Lewis base. Obviously, the spiro compounds 5 and 7 are formed by a similar reaction mechanism. Additionally, the method was applied to a gram-scale reaction of α-halogenated p-toluenesulfonylhydrazone 6c and MBH nitrile of isatin 2c under the standard conditions (Scheme 6). The

Trifluoromethylated hydrazones and acylhydrazones as potent nitrogen-containing fluorinated building blocks

• Zhang Dongxu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1741–1754, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.127

• pairs and provides a good basis and scope for further extensions and explorations [39] (Scheme 3). Based on the work by Wu et al. and extending their previous work, Rueping and co-workers explored the effects of fluorine in organocatalytic reactions. They developed an asymmetric Brønsted acid–Lewis base

• Brønsted acid-assisted Lewis base catalysis. Synthesis of CF3-pyrazoles and CF3-1,6-dihydropyridazines. Asymmetric reactions of trifluoromethylimines with organometallic reagents. Mannich-type reaction of trifluoroacetaldehyde hydrazones. Synthesis of trifluoromethylated hydrazonoyl halides. Early work of

N-Sulfenylsuccinimide/phthalimide: an alternative sulfenylating reagent in organic transformations

• Fatemeh Doraghi,
• Seyedeh Pegah Aledavoud,
• Mehdi Ghanbarlou,
• Bagher Larijani and
• Mohammad Mahdavi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1471–1502, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.106

• azepane. A possible mechanism was suggested for this Lewis base catalysis system. Methanesulfonic acid (MsOH) activated reagent 14, which coordinated with the Lewis base (S)-E, to form complex I. Then, the transfer of the sulfenium ion to the alkene resulted in chiral thiiranium ion II. Capture of the

• enantioselectivity and the product yield were reduced. Although, the authors did not further explain the catalytic pathway. The use of organocatalysts in sulfenylation of N-heterocyclic compounds was investigated by Gustafson′s group in 2017 (Scheme 48) [81]. In their work, a series of conjugate Lewis base Brønsted

• acid organocatalysts were evaluated for sulfenylation on C3, or C2 position of N-heterocycles 115, including indoles, peptides, pyrrole, and 1-methyl-1H-pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridine. The authors hypothesized a mechanism for the activation of N-sulfanylsuccinimides 1 or 14 by conjugate Lewis base Brønsted

Exploring the role of halogen bonding in iodonium ylides: insights into unexpected reactivity and reaction control

• Carlee A. Montgomery and
• Graham K. Murphy

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1171–1190, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.86

• reactions in processes that are typically metal-mediated, as well as the reactions observed between iodonium ylide-Lewis base pairs, including single electron transfers and proton transfers. As iodonium ylides exhibit two σ-holes, they offer two potential sites for halogen bonding to occur, potentially

• pattern shown in Figure 1, where R is the host atom or functional group to which the halogen is covalently bound, where X is the halogen atom possessing the σ-hole (halogen bond donor), and where Y is the Lewis base (halogen bond acceptor) [31]. σ-Holes arise from anisotropic covalent bonds between the

• such that they can undergo intramolecular reactions within the iodine’s ligand sphere. These EDA complexes have been proposed to then undergo single electron transfers from the Lewis base to the ylide, under both thermal or blue LED irradiation conditions, leading to C–H insertion products. Irradiating

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

• loses dihydrogen to give a neutral borane 12, followed by B–C(sp2)/B–H transborylation with HBpin (ΔG‡ = 14.7 kcal mol−1) to give the borylated arene 13 and regenerate the catalyst (Scheme 4a). Fontaine showed that the steric bulk of the Lewis base had a significant effect on the rate of the reaction

A one-pot electrochemical synthesis of 2-aminothiazoles from active methylene ketones and thioureas mediated by NH₄I

• Shang-Feng Yang,
• Pei Li,
• Zi-Lin Fang,
• Sen Liang,
• Hong-Yu Tian,
• Bao-Guo Sun,
• Kun Xu and
• Cheng-Chu Zeng

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1249–1255, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.130

• can act as a bi-functional organocatalyst due to the existence of both Lewis base (NH2) and Brønsted acidic (COOH) sites. In the suggested mechanism, the carboxy group may polarize the carbonyl group of the active methylene ketone and the amino group as a Lewis base serves the formation of enolate to