Aromatic C–H bond functionalization through organocatalyzed asymmetric intermolecular aza-Friedel–Crafts reaction: a recent update

• Anup Biswas

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 956–981, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.72

• activation of the reaction components through H-bonding engagement with free hydroxy groups of the catalysts also favoring stereoselective addition (see structure 28 in Scheme 8a) [32]. Two years later, the same research group utilized the C1-symmetric catalyst P10 for the functionalization of the C3–H bond

• developed an aza-Friedel–Crafts reaction involving β-naphthols 119 as π-nucleophiles and benzothiazolimines 118 as electrophiles. Chiral squaramide S1-assisted this process affording enantioenriched 1-((benzothiazol-2-ylamino)methyl)naphthalen-2-ols 120 with high chemical yields. The activation of the

• ) [59]. Other catalysts In 2019, Vila, Pedro and co-workers reported a functional group-directed activation of the carbocyclic ring of indoles utilizing cyclic imines as electrophiles. The quinine-derived compound O1 was the catalytic reagent to functionalize the ortho-C–H bond of 4-, 5-, and 6

Photoredox catalysis enabling decarboxylative radical cyclization of γ,γ-dimethylallyltryptophan (DMAT) derivatives: formal synthesis of 6,7-secoagroclavine

• Alessio Regni,
• Francesca Bartoccini and
• Giovanni Piersanti

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 918–927, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.70

• ][64][65][66][67], we became fascinated in exploring whether photoredox catalysis could be applied for the activation of such unnatural amino acids to expedite the development of completely new synthetic pathways. In particular, 4-dimethylallyltryptophan (DMAT) is of interest for the following reasons

• cyclization event would be triggered using their innate functionality, namely the α-amino carboxylate, through photoredox-mediated oxidative activation and CO2 extrusion, without the need for acid prefunctionalization to the redox-activated ester. Consequently, a technique involving direct generation of α

Synthesis of aliphatic nitriles from cyclobutanone oxime mediated by sulfuryl fluoride (SO₂F₂)

• Xian-Lin Chen and
• Hua-Li Qin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 901–908, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.68

• the construction of a range of δ-olefin-containing aliphatic nitriles with (E)-configuration selectivity. This new method features wide substrate scope, mild conditions, and direct N–O activation. Keywords: direct N–O activation; E-selectivity; nitrile synthesis; ring-opening cross-coupling; sulfuryl

• ) carbon, which leads to side reactions of the alkyl intermediates [14][19][20]. Besides, most of the C(sp2)–C(sp3) reactions employ organic halides or organometallic reagents [21][22][23], which are not environmentally friendly. Recently, based on the activation effect of O-acyloximes on N–O bonds [24][25

• esters and adopted the pre-acylation activation strategies [39][40][41]. Up to now, only one report employed an oxime for the generation of iminyl radicals to obtain the similar products, in which, substrates were limited to the electron-rich alkenes (Scheme 2b) [42]. On the other hand, sulfuryl fluoride

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

• , diversely functionalized pyridines have been synthesized via C–H activation under transition-metal and rare earth metal catalysis, including C–H alkylation, alkenylation, arylation, heteroarylation, borylation, etc. Recently, metal-free approaches have also been developed for the C–H functionalization of N

• also found to have a higher catalytic activity for the ortho-alkylation of pyridines with styrenes to give the linear alkylated products (5b,c, Scheme 2). Further, the authors proposed that the C–H bond activation could be the rate limiting step based on kinetic isotope experiments (KIE). The proposed

• mechanism involves the coordination of pyridine to the metal center of the cationic catalyst and B(C6F5)3 promotes the ortho-C–H activation (deprotonation) of pyridine to afford pyridyl species 6. Next, the 2,1-migratory insertion of alkene 2 into the metal–pyridyl bond in 6 gives the intermediate 7, which

Eschenmoser coupling reactions starting from primary thioamides. When do they work and when not?

• Lukáš Marek,
• Jiří Váňa,
• Jan Svoboda and
• Jiří Hanusek

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 808–819, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.61

• ) with activation free energies 47 and 59 kJ·mol−1 than from 4-bromo-1,1-dimethyl-1,4-dihydroisoquinolin-3(2H)-one (2b) and N-phenyl-2-bromo(phenyl)acetamide (4a) with activation free energies 78 and 88 kJ·mol−1. These trends fully correspond to a combination of electronic effects (bridging C=O has an

• the ring strain involved in the enthalpy term disfavors it) shows the opposite trend. This means that the activation free energies are decreasing from 47 to 23 kJ·mol−1, respectively. Spontaneous co-catenation (or thiophile-assisted when a P(III) compound is added) extrusion of sulfur from thiirane

• of these isomeric salts have the highest contributions to the overall barrier for Hantzsch reaction pathways because their cyclization through TS4 is very fast (activation free energies 5–15 kJ·mol−1). The overall (relative) energy barriers now decrease in the order 6a > 10a > 15 > 12a, which is

Construction of hexabenzocoronene-based chiral nanographenes

• Ranran Li,
• Di Wang,
• Shengtao Li and
• Peng An

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 736–751, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.54

• Gibbs activation energy of enantiomer 53 for the racemization process was determined as 33.0 kcal mol−1 at 298 K. The CPL spectra of M-53 and P-53 showed an emission maximum at 560 nm with glum value of 2.3 × 10−4. Instead of helicene formation in the final Scholl-type ring formation step, Martín and co

Photocatalytic sequential C–H functionalization expediting acetoxymalonylation of imidazo heterocycles

• Deepak Singh,
• Shyamal Pramanik and
• Soumitra Maity

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 666–673, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.48

• investigation revealed a sequential sp2 and sp3 C–H activation, followed by functionalization driven by zinc acetate coupled with the photocatalyst PTH. A variety of imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines and related heterocycles were explored as substrates along with several active methylene reagents, all generating the

• activation and functionalization of sp2 and sp3 C–H bonds via relay catalysis (Scheme 4). The relay can be divided into two cycles; the first cycle (cycle-1) deals with the C(sp2)–H functionalization at the C-3 position of the imidazo heterocycles, while the second cycle (cycle-2) is all about the C(sp3)–H

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

• activation of the Michael acceptor and the formation of intermediate organocuprates from stoichiometric organometallic reagents [18]. Metal enolates formed in this way can react in many transformations (Scheme 1) [19][20]. It has been documented that metal enolates from conjugate additions engaged in aldol

• . Entrapping of the Zn enolate directly with acetyl chloride was found inefficient and led to a mixture of C-, O-, and diacylated products as described by Murphy and co-workers [37]. Encouraged by the work of Noyori on the activation of Li enolates using Me2Zn [38], they have tried to facilitate the enolate

• diastereomers were detected (Scheme 9A). Furthermore, the authors have also demonstrated a four-component coupling reaction: by simply increasing the amount of the organolithium reagent (2.05 equiv) used for the activation of the Zn enolate, β-hydroxyketones 40 were gained via 1,2-addition of the zincate

C3-Alkylation of furfural derivatives by continuous flow homogeneous catalysis

• Grédy Kiala Kinkutu,
• Catherine Louis,
• Myriam Roy,
• Juliette Blanchard and
• Julie Oble

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 582–592, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.43

• formation of the imine directing group and the C3-functionalization with some vinylsilanes and norbonene. Keywords: biomass; C–H activation; flow; furfural; homogeneous catalysis; Introduction The conversion of biomass derivatives into value-added products is one of the key branches of green chemistry and

• furfural derivatives have been developed. In particular, their direct functionalization by transition-metal-catalyzed C–H activation processes [16][17][18] has become a major area of interest where only a few methods have been reported so far. Most examples concern functionalization at C5, which is the

• furfural derivatives by C–H activation, a) in batch: previous works, and b) in continuous flow: this work. C3-alkylation of bidentate imine 1 performed in batch. Optimization of the heating for the alkylation reaction on the homemade pulsed-flow setup. Proposed reaction mechanism for the alkylation

A new oxidatively stable ligand for the chiral functionalization of amino acids in Ni(II)–Schiff base complexes

• Alena V. Dmitrieva,
• Oleg A. Levitskiy,
• Yuri K. Grishin and
• Tatiana V. Magdesieva

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 566–574, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.41

• base chiral template is a fairly versatile “tool” that can be adapted to a specific task. A relatively new approach to functionalization of amino acids is a combination of a stereoselective synthesis in a metal-coordination environment with electrochemical activation [31]. It increases the reactivity

Access to cyclopropanes with geminal trifluoromethyl and difluoromethylphosphonate groups

• Ita Hajdin,
• Romana Pajkert,
• Mira Keßler,
• Jianlin Han,
• Haibo Mei and
• Gerd-Volker Röschenthaler

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 541–549, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.39

• adds to the diazo compound 5 under formation of zwitterionic Int1 (ΔG = 5.2 kcal/mol). Afterwards, copper carbene complex Int2 is formed after extrusion of nitrogen. The transition state of this metal carbene formation TS1 was calculated with an activation free energy of 16.4 kcal/mol (Scheme 5). Int2

• adds to styrene to the carbon atom in 2-position of the ethenyl group. At this point, four different orientations of the phenyl group are conceivable (Scheme 6 and Scheme 7, TS2_1 to TS2_4). After an early transition state with hardly any activation barrier, the addition of styrene to Int2 proceeds in

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

• norbornene derivatives 15 using imides 27 and tetraarylborates 28 (Scheme 5) [37]. The method utilizes C–N bond activation to trigger the reaction. The authors demonstrated a broad reaction scope. Electron-deficient amides were shown to perform worse than their electron-rich counterparts with the p

• proceeds similarly to Nakamura’s Fe-catalyzed methodology (Scheme 13) [48]. In 2017, the Cheng laboratory investigated the Co-catalyzed ring-opening/dehydration of oxabicyclic alkenes via the C–H activation of arenes (Scheme 15) [50]. First, the group explored the ortho-naphthylation of N-pyrimidinylindole

• 5.0 equivalents of Cs2CO3 provided the naphthalene core via sequential dehydration. Based on preliminary mechanistic experiments, the authors proposed the reaction begins with the oxidation of Co(II) to Co(III) by O2. MHP-directed C–H activation of the ortho-C–H position generates 90 which can

Computational studies of Brønsted acid-catalyzed transannular cycloadditions of cycloalkenone hydrazones

• Manuel Pedrón,
• Jana Sendra,
• Irene Ginés,
• Tomás Tejero,
• Jose L. Vicario and
• Pedro Merino

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 477–486, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.37

• (3+ + 2) reaction in which distortion effects are crucial for achieving the required ion-pair geometry in the transition state. Following this precedent, we proceeded to calculate the energy barriers and the corresponding activation parameters for all the reactions illustrated in Scheme 1 (series a–k

• yields. Similarly, data of Table 1 predict that the reaction of 1g and 1h leading to 5-5 and 5-6 systems (not tested experimentally, yet), respectively could also be observed experimentally. On the other hand, the higher activation barrier of compounds 1c, 1d, and 1k makes the cyclization way more energy

• model [30] the distortion energy (ΔE≠d) corresponds to the difference between the single point corresponding to interacting 3 and 4, and the sum of single-point calculations for TS2-a and TS2b. The apparent activation energy (ΔE≠app) refers to the energy difference between TS2 and the interacting

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

• functionalization of C(sp2) and C(sp3) centers with SCF3, SeCF3, or OCH2CF3 groups among others, by C–H bond activation. The scope and limitations of these transformations are discussed in this review. Keywords: C–H bond activation; emergent fluorinated groups; homogeneous catalysis; organofluorine chemistry

• retrosynthetic disconnections. In this context, a strong interest from the scientific community was shown towards the challenging synthesis of fluorinated molecules by transition-metal-catalyzed C–H bond activation [44][45][46][47][48][49][50], allowing the functionalization of complex molecules and even for

• (e.g., SCF3, SeCF3, SCF2CO2Et, OCH2CF3) by transition-metal-catalyzed C–H bond activation (Scheme 1). The review will be organized in two main parts, dedicated to the construction of a C–SCF2R/SeCF3 and C–OCH2CF3 bond. This review does not aim to be exhaustive and key examples were carefully chosen to

Mechanochemical solid state synthesis of copper(I)/NHC complexes with K₃PO₄

• Ina Remy-Speckmann,
• Birte M. Zimmermann,
• Mahadeb Gorai,
• Martin Lerch and
• Johannes F. Teichert

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 440–447, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.34

• an ester reduction with H2 as terminal reducing agent utilizing bifunctional copper(I)/NHC complex 5 bearing a guanidine moiety as additional catalytic unit [48]. This catalyst acts by employing the copper(I)/NHC complex for H2 activation on the one hand and by using the guanidine subunit for

• simultaneous organocatalytic activation of the ester on the other hand. Following a previously established synthetic pathway [49], we have found that transmetallation via silver(I)/NHC complex 4 was the only viable synthetic entry point to this sophisticated bifunctional catalyst (Scheme 2) [10][12][14][50

Combretastatins D series and analogues: from isolation, synthetic challenges and biological activities

• Jorge de Lima Neto and
• Paulo Henrique Menezes

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 399–427, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.31

• cell lines. The compounds were tested in five different concentrations (ranging from 1 to 100 μM) and showed no in vitro cytotoxicity. However, compound 10 was found to possess anti-inflammatory activity. It showed effects on LPS-induced activation of NF-κB and COX-2 similar to the Bay 11-7082 molecule

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

• (Scheme 16) [75]. The reaction was proposed to occur through activation of the alkyl fluoride 68 with H-B-9-BBN, followed by electrophilic substitution of the arene 69 to give a Wheland intermediate and a fluoroborohydride 70 (Scheme 16). Loss of H2 gave the arylated product 71, dihydrogen, and F-B-9-BBN

• fastest during catalyst activation, rather than during catalysis, leading to an in-depth investigation of catalyst activation using variable time normalisation analysis (VTNA) and kinetic isotope effects. A catalytic cycle was proposed in which (Me2N)C6H4AlH2 83 underwent deprotonation of the alkyne 1 to

• aminals with allylic or allenylboronic esters (Scheme 25) [117]. The reaction was proposed to proceed by an activation of elemental gallium to a GaI species [(18-crown-6)-GaI·(dioxane)nOTf] 99, which abstracted methoxide from the acetal 100, to give an oxocarbenium 101 and GaIOMe 102. The gallium(I

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

1,4-Dithianes: attractive C2-building blocks for the synthesis of complex molecular architectures

• Bram Ryckaert,
• Ellen Demeyere,
• Frederick Degroote,
• Hilde Janssens and
• Johan M. Winne

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 115–132, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.12

• probes that indicated the carbocationic nature of the involved intermediate species. Spurred by our results in (3 + 2) cycloadditions of 1,4-dithiane-fused allyl cations (vide supra) [103], our group recently investigated the use of Wang’s soft activation mode of 1,4-dithiane-fused allyl cations for its

• -migration. Activation mode of ethynyldithiolanes towards gold-coordinated 1,4-dithiane-fused allyl cation and vinyl carbenoid reagents. Desulfurization problems. oxidative decoration strategies for 1,4-dithiane scaffolds. Funding BR, ED and FD thank FWO-Vlaanderen for awarding them a predoctoral

Practical synthesis of isocoumarins via Rh(III)-catalyzed C–H activation/annulation cascade

• Qian-Ci Gao,
• Yi-Fei Li,
• Jun Xuan and
• Xiao-Qiang Hu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 100–106, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.10

• activation/annulation cascade of readily available enaminones with iodonium ylides towards the convenient synthesis of isocoumarins. This coupling system proceeds in useful chemical yields (up to 93%) via a cascade C–H activation, Rh-carbenoid migratory insertion and acid-promoted intramolecular annulation

• . The success of gram-scale reaction and diverse functionalization of isocoumarins demonstrated the synthetic utility of this protocol. Keywords: C–H activation; enaminone; iodonium ylide; isocoumarin; rhodium catalysis; Introduction Isocoumarins are an important structural motif in many naturally

• of 1,2-difunctionalized arenes with alkynes or carbon monoxide (Scheme 1b, III) [13][14][15][16], have been widely applied for the assembly of isocoumarins over the past decades. Recently, the transition-metal-catalyzed ortho C–H activation/annulation of benzoic acids has emerged as an attractive

Catalytic aza-Nazarov cyclization reactions to access α-methylene-γ-lactam heterocycles

• Bilge Banu Yagci,
• Selin Ezgi Donmez,
• Onur Şahin and
• Yunus Emre Türkmen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 66–77, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.6

• chlorides 6 initially gives N-acyliminium salts 8, which are activated upon treatment with AgOTf resulting in an anion metathesis of Cl− with OTf−. This activation is proposed to facilitate the desired aza-Nazarov reaction to afford the cyclized intermediate 9, which is stabilized by the trimethylsilyl (TMS

Synthetic study toward tridachiapyrone B

• Morgan Cormier,
• Florian Hernvann and
• Michaël De Paolis

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1741–1748, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.183

• Discussion At first glance, the structure of 2,5-cyclohexadienone 5 suggests a disconnection involving the dearomative addition of 2,4,6-trimethylphenol to α,α’-dimethoxy-γ-pyrone 2 that we eagerly sought to establish under basic activation of the nucleophile or by protonation of 2 (Scheme 2a). This

Redox-active molecules as organocatalysts for selective oxidative transformations – an unperceived organocatalysis field

• Elena R. Lopat’eva,
• Igor B. Krylov,
• Dmitry A. Lapshin and
• Alexander O. Terent’ev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1672–1695, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.179

• organocatalyst does not undergo oxidation or reduction but facilitates interaction between oxidant and substrate (Scheme 1, type II organocatalysis) are fluently discussed below to show the fundamental difference between type II and type III redox-organocatalysis. Organocatalysis by activation of redox

• addition to the electron-rich C=C bond [58] or proton loss followed by β-functionalization [59][60][61]. The iminium cation catalysis is used in the activation of electrophilic properties of enones for the nucleophilic epoxidation by hydroperoxides (Scheme 2B). N-Heterocyclic carbene (NHC) organocatalysis

• in oxidative processes for the activation of electrophilic properties of unsaturated substrates or for the activation of hydroperoxide oxidative properties. In Scheme 4A the proposed transition state for the Brønsted acid-catalyzed asymmetric Baeyer–Villiger reaction is shown, in which the

Navigating and expanding the roadmap of natural product genome mining tools

• Friederike Biermann,
• Sebastian L. Wenski and
• Eric J. N. Helfrich

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1656–1671, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.178

• (non-targeted, e.g., modifying culturing conditions) and pathway-specific (e.g., heterologous expression or in situ pathway activation) approaches have been developed to awaken silent biosynthetic pathways [16]. Most importantly, however, genome mining can prevent the time-consuming re-discovery of

• minimally harbors three core domains, responsible for the activation and loading, tethering, and condensation of building blocks and intermediates. The biosynthesis is directional and starts at the N-terminal module with the activation and loading of the first building block onto the assembly line (Figure

A novel bis-triazole scaffold accessed via two tandem [3 + 2] cycloaddition events including an uncatalyzed, room temperature azide–alkyne click reaction

• Ksenia Malkova,
• Andrey Bubyrev,
• Vasilisa Krivovicheva,
• Dmitry Dar’in,
• Alexander Bunev and
• Mikhail Krasavin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1636–1641, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.175

• catalyst but the reaction still requires thermal activation [21]. Thus, to our knowledge, the room temperature intramolecular azide–alkyne cycloaddition is unprecedented (plasmon-assisted click reaction at low temperature has been recently reported [22]). Excited by our initial finding, we tested various