CF₃-substituted carbocations: underexploited intermediates with great potential in modern synthetic chemistry

• Anthony J. Fernandes,
• Armen Panossian,
• Bastien Michelet,
• Agnès Martin-Mingot,
• Frédéric R. Leroux and
• Sébastien Thibaudeau

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 343–378, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.32

• a longer reaction time, allenes 127 undergo a subsequent intramolecular hydroarylation reaction leading to indenes 128. The authors suggested the formation of FeCl3–HFIP complexes being involved in a Lewis acid-assisted Brønsted acid catalysis. The CF3-substituted propargyl alcohol 129 was found to

Recent developments in enantioselective photocatalysis

• Callum Prentice,
• James Morrisson,
• Andrew D. Smith and
• Eli Zysman-Colman

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2363–2441, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.197

• there is much progress yet to be made. Brønsted acid catalysis Using chiral amines and NHCs as catalysts to generate asymmetry relies upon the formation of covalently bonded intermediates such as enamines, iminium ions or Breslow intermediates within the catalytic cycle. The first example of merging non

• "Brønsted acid catalysis", yet interestingly their conjugate bases can also be used as efficient hydrogen bonding catalysts. Knowles et al. showed that a tricatalytic system using chiral phosphate 235 can mediate the deracemisation of cyclic urea rac-236 (Scheme 36) [97]. The proposed mechanism involves a

• desired products 267 or 268 in moderate yields and enantioselectivities (3 examples, up to 75:25 er for 267 and 2 examples, up to 68:32 er for 268). Lewis acid catalysis Lewis acids have been known for decades to activate carbonyl compounds through the formation of coordination complexes that increases

When metal-catalyzed C–H functionalization meets visible-light photocatalysis

• Lucas Guillemard and
• Joanna Wencel-Delord

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1754–1804, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.147

• catalysis with a second catalytic system has sparked significant interest from the scientific community. Accordingly, numerous unprecedented reactions involving photoredox catalysis in synergy with other activation modes including Brønsted/Lewis acid catalysis, organocatalysis, enzymatic biocatalysis, or

Tuneable access to indole, indolone, and cinnoline derivatives from a common 1,4-diketone Michael acceptor

• Dalel El-Marrouki,
• Sabrina Touchet,
• Abderrahmen Abdelli,
• Hédi M’Rabet,
• Mohamed Lotfi Efrit and
• Philippe C. Gros

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1722–1731, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.144

• secondary amine and the nonconjugated carbonyl unit. Next, an intramolecular 1,2-addition to the Michael acceptor part of the molecule, previously activated by acid catalysis, takes place (after an imine–enamine equilibrium for the indole pathway), followed by a prototropy, the release of a water molecule

Fluorohydration of alkynes via I(I)/I(III) catalysis

• Jessica Neufeld,
• Constantin G. Daniliuc and
• Ryan Gilmour

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1627–1635, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.135

• fluorination of acetophenone derivatives was achieved using iodosylarenes and commercially available NEt3/HF 1:5 to generate the ArIF2 species in situ is also highly pertinent [39][40] (Figure 1A). Elegant reports describing the conversion of internal alkynes to α-fluoroketones via π-acid catalysis were also

Heterogeneous photocatalysis in flow chemical reactors

• Christopher G. Thomson,
• Ai-Lan Lee and
• Filipe Vilela

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1495–1549, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.125

Ferrocenyl-substituted tetrahydrothiophenes via formal [3 + 2]-cycloaddition reactions of ferrocenyl thioketones with donor–acceptor cyclopropanes

• Grzegorz Mlostoń,
• Mateusz Kowalczyk,
• André U. Augustin,
• Peter G. Jones and
• Daniel B. Werz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1288–1295, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.109

• by means of spectroscopic methods (R = CF3). In a recent work, an alternative, efficient and useful method for the synthesis of highly functionalized tetrahydrothiophenes of type 6 was reported [9] (Scheme 2). Under Lewis acid catalysis, formal [3 + 2]-cycloadditions of aromatic and cycloaliphatic

The charge-assisted hydrogen-bonded organic framework (CAHOF) self-assembled from the conjugated acid of tetrakis(4-aminophenyl)methane and 2,6-naphthalenedisulfonate as a new class of recyclable Brønsted acid catalysts

• Svetlana A. Kuznetsova,
• Alexander S. Gak,
• Yulia V. Nelyubina,
• Vladimir A. Larionov,
• Han Li,
• Michael North,
• Vladimir P. Zhereb,
• Alexander F. Smol'yakov,
• Artem O. Dmitrienko,
• Michael G. Medvedev,
• Igor S. Gerasimov,
• Ashot S. Saghyan and
• Yuri N. Belokon

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1124–1134, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.99

• ). Both the pH of the medium (specific acid catalysis) and general acid catalysis by the ammonium groups of F-1 were potentially important for the ring opening reactions. The ring openings were conducted in three different media: neat methanol, a mixture of methanol and dichloromethane, and a mixture of

• × 10−2 M in water. Assuming that the average pKa value of the ammonium groups of the protonated form of TAPM was around 4.0, the pH value of the solution would be between 4 and 5. It is therefore most likely that F-1 operated via the general acid catalysis mechanism in this solvent mixture. As the pKa

• value of anilinium cations will only change to a small extent when the solvent is changed from water to methanol, the same general acid catalysis mechanism would be expected to occur in reactions carried out in methanol. For comparison, the commercially available (and most often used heterogeneous

Asymmetric synthesis of CF₂-functionalized aziridines by combined strong Brønsted acid catalysis

• Xing-Fa Tan,
• Fa-Guang Zhang and
• Jun-An Ma

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 638–644, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.60

[1,3]/[1,4]-Sulfur atom migration in β-hydroxyalkylphosphine sulfides

• Katarzyna Włodarczyk,
• Piotr Borowski and
• Marek Stankevič

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 88–105, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.11

• conditions clearly showed that distinct reaction mechanisms were responsible for the substrate’s transformation under Lewis and Brønsted acid catalysis, but both seemed to include the preliminary formation of alkenylphosphine sulfide. This was shown for the Brønsted acid-mediated reaction (Table 4) but

• enantiomerically enriched 53 and 46. Synthesis of substrates for this study. Reaction of β-hydroxyalkylphosphine sulfides with Lewis-acidic AlCl3. Reaction of β-hydroxyalkylphosphine sulfides with Brønsted-acidic H2SO4. Control experiments under Brønsted acid catalysis. Supporting Information Supporting

Bacterial terpene biosynthesis: challenges and opportunities for pathway engineering

• Eric J. N. Helfrich,
• Geng-Min Lin,
• Christopher A. Voigt and
• Jon Clardy

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2889–2906, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.283

• sesquiterpenes (type I TCs), diterpenes can either be generated by type I TCs or type II TCs [11][55]. Type II TCs initiate carbocation formation by Brønsted acid catalysis to protonate a terminal isoprene double bond or an epoxide ring (Figure 5b) [56]. Thus, cyclization mediated by type II TCs leads to an

Indium-mediated C-allylation of melibiose

• Christian Denner,
• Manuel Gintner,
• Hanspeter Kählig and
• Walther Schmid

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2458–2464, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.238

• the need for acid catalysis or other promotors [15]. This was also observed in our studies reflected in the significantly higher conversion rates employing indium versus tin (Table 1, entries 1 and 3). With respect to the solvent system, different ratios of an ethanol/water mixture were investigated

Cyclopropanation–ring expansion of 3-chloroindoles with α-halodiazoacetates: novel synthesis of 4-quinolone-3-carboxylic acid and norfloxacin

• Sara Peeters,
• Linn Neerbye Berntsen,
• Pål Rongved and
• Tore Bonge-Hansen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2156–2160, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.212

• conditions without the need for external acid catalysis. These relatively mild reaction conditions should be applicable to a large substrate scope. We anticipated that our novel cyclopropanation–ring expansion reaction would apply to 3-chloroindol derivatives, and designed a simple and straightforward

Enantioselective Diels–Alder reaction of anthracene by chiral tritylium catalysis

• Qichao Zhang,
• Jian Lv and
• Sanzhong Luo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1304–1312, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.129

• anion; tritylium salt; Introduction Carbocation Lewis acid catalysis has grown significantly over the last two decades [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. The development of asymmetric carbocation catalysts has been long pursued but remains a challenging task. One strategy is to design and

• investigated in Lewis acid catalysis over the past decades, a chiral counter anion [34][35] with metal elements as the central atom, however, was seldom reported. Typically, the tritylium salts with weakly coordinating anions can be synthesized through a simple halide abstraction from the trityl halide in the

• , Scheme 3a). The electron-rich nature of dimethylanthracene may account for catalysis with the iron salts. On the other hand, an opposite chiral induction in this case is a clear indication of distinctive carbocation catalysis instead of metal Lewis acid catalysis in the presence of trityl chloride. In

Steroid diversification by multicomponent reactions

• Leslie Reguera,
• Cecilia I. Attorresi,
• Javier A. Ramírez and
• Daniel G. Rivera

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1236–1256, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.121

• reaction reported in 1893 comprises the acid–catalyzed condensation of ethyl acetoacetate, benzaldehyde and urea to generate 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-one [41]. From that time, the reaction was extended to Lewis-acid catalysis and the use of other solvents such as methanol or aprotic solvents such as THF

A three-component, Zn(OTf)₂-mediated entry into trisubstituted 2-aminoimidazoles

• Alexei Lukin,
• Anna Bakholdina,
• Anna Kryukova,
• Alexander Sapegin and
• Mikhail Krasavin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1061–1064, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.103

• propargylureas (leading to 2-imidazolones) and extend the range of Lewis acid-catalyzed azole syntheses based on N-carbonyl propargylamines. Keywords: alkyne hydroamination; cyclocondensation; Lewis acid catalysis; multicomponent reactions; propargylurea; Introduction The pioneering publications of Beller and

• turned our attention to propargylureas 4. These have been previously converted to the respective 2-imidazolones via base-promoted intramolecular amination of the propargyl group [5][6]. However, such transformations have not been studied under transition metal or Lewis acid catalysis. Moreover, the

Synthesis of a novel category of pseudo-peptides using an Ugi three-component reaction of levulinic acid as bifunctional substrate, amines, and amino acid-based isocyanides

• Maryam Khalesi,
• Azim Ziyaei Halimehjani and
• Jürgen Martens

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 852–857, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.82

• by acid catalysis from renewable resources, such as sugars, lignocellulosic biomass and waste materials [18]. It can be used as a bifunctional precursor for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, plasticizers, and different additives [19]. Furthermore, it is recognized as an excellent starting material

Tuning the stability of alkoxyisopropyl protection groups

• Zehong Liang,
• Henna Koivikko,
• Mikko Oivanen and
• Petri Heinonen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 746–751, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.70

• . The vinyl ether hydrolysis has earlier shown to be even a subject of general acid catalysis [13][14]. It is useful to compare the stabilities of the acetal protections to those of the 4,4’-dimethoxytrityl protecting group used in oligonucleotide synthesis. Directly comparable data are hard to find

Cross metathesis-mediated synthesis of hydroxamic acid derivatives

• Shital Kumar Chattopadhyay,
• Subhankar Ghosh and
• Suman Sil

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 3070–3075, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.285

• important demonstration of the protocol is the preparation of the unusual amino acid component of the bioactive cyclic peptide Chap-31. Keywords: α-amino acid; catalysis; cross metathesis; hydroxamates; Introduction Cross-metathesis reactions (CM) have rapidly grown [1][2][3] to be a reliable method for

Synthesis of cis-hydrindan-2,4-diones bearing an all-carbon quaternary center by a Danheiser annulation

• Gisela V. Saborit,
• Carlos Cativiela,
• Ana I. Jiménez,
• Josep Bonjoch and
• Ben Bradshaw

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 2597–2601, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.237

• takes place from polyfunctionalized cyclohexanones or related compounds through a Michael reaction [7], successive inter- and intramolecular radical processes [8], intramolecular carbene addition/cyclization [9][10], aldol cyclizations either under Lewis acid catalysis [11] or from diazoketones in the

Functionalization of graphene: does the organic chemistry matter?

• Artur Kasprzak,
• Agnieszka Zuchowska and
• Magdalena Poplawska

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 2018–2026, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.177

• stability [41][42]. Additionally, some researchers have used the acid catalysis [39] or grinding-induced process [40] for the esterification reaction, and the changes in the spectra (e.g., IR, XPS) were not prominent enough to imply the formation of covalent ester-type linkages. In the grinding-induced case

Phosphodiester models for cleavage of nucleic acids

• Satu Mikkola,
• Tuomas Lönnberg and
• Harri Lönnberg

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 803–837, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.68

• nucleotide are extensively used in mechanistic studies of protein nucleases and ribozymes. Rate accelerating 3´-bridging substitution has been used to find out whether the chemical step really is rate-liming and 5´-substitution to verify that some small ribozymes utilize general acid catalysis [40]. The

• linkage has undergone rapid initial protonation. In other words, a monoanionic phosphorane is obtained by a specific acid/general base mechanism that is experimentally equivalent to general acid catalysis. The monoanionic phosphorane is stable enough to pseudorotate and may, hence, undergo isomerization

Mannich base-connected syntheses mediated by ortho-quinone methides

• Petra Barta,
• Ferenc Fülöp and
• István Szatmári

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 560–575, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.43

• indole polyheterocycles 49 and 50 in good yields with 90–99% ee. One of the latest publications around this topic has been reported by Deb et al. [86][87]. Various 2-(aminoalkyl)phenols or 1-(aminoalkyl)naphthols 51 were reacted with indoles under Brønsted acid catalysis resulting in 3-(α,α-diarylmethyl

From dipivaloylketene to tetraoxaadamantanes

• Gert Kollenz and
• Curt Wentrup

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 1–10, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.1

• need for acid catalysis. As in the case of the addition of arylamines, monodecarboxylation takes place, and in the presence of a strong acid, they are converted to the tetraoxaadamantanes 28 and 29 (65–93%) [35]. Several bisdioxine derivatives of aromatic di- and triamines as well as crown-ether

Acid-catalyzed ring-opening reactions of a cyclopropanated 3-aza-2-oxabicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-ene with alcohols

• Katrina Tait,
• Alysia Horvath,
• Nicolas Blanchard and
• William Tam

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 2888–2894, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.281

• reactions. The scope of the reaction was successfully expanded to include primary, secondary, and tertiary alcohol nucleophiles. Through X-ray crystallography, the stereochemistry of the product was determined which confirmed an SN2-like mechanism to form the ring-opened product. Keywords: acid catalysis