All-carbon [3 + 2] cycloaddition in natural product synthesis

• Zhuo Wang and
• Junyang Liu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 3015–3031, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.251

• natural product syntheses featuring all-carbon [3 + 2] annulation are elaborated. Lastly, we discuss future directions and opportunities for the all-carbon [3 + 2] cycloaddition. Review In 1981, Little and co-workers utilized a trimethylenemethane (TMM) cycloaddition as the key reaction to synthesize the

• rearrangement product 99 in 85% yield. The synthesis of daphenylline (11) was completed by a seven-step synthesis from benzofuran 99. Phosphine-catalyzed enantioselective [3 + 2] annulation In 2019, Lu and co-workers disclosed a novel chiral-phosphine-catalyzed enantioselective [3 + 2] annulation of allenes and

• isoindigos to give an enantioenriched annulation adduct bearing vicinal quaternary stereocenters [46] (Scheme 7A). Both symmetric and unsymmetric isoindigos can undergo enantioselective [3 + 2] annulation with an allene and produced a chiral adduct with high yield and high ee value. When unsymmetric

Three-component reactions of aromatic amines, 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds, and α-bromoacetaldehyde acetal to access N-(hetero)aryl-4,5-unsubstituted pyrroles

• Wenbo Huang,
• Kaimei Wang,
• Ping Liu,
• Minghao Li,
• Shaoyong Ke and
• Yanlong Gu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2920–2928, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.241

• -bromoacetaldehyde acetal by using aluminum(III) chloride as a Lewis acid catalyst through [1 + 2 + 2] annulation. This new versatile methodology provides a wide scope for the synthesis of different functional N-(hetero)aryl-4,5-unsubstituted pyrrole scaffolds, which can be further derived to access multisubstituted

• pyrrole-3-carboxamides. In the presence of 1.2 equiv of KI, a polysubstituted pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridine derivative was also successfully synthesized. Keywords: acid catalyst; [1 + 2 + 2] annulation; KI; pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridine; pyrroles; Introduction Among nitrogen-containing heterocycles, pyrroles have

• , the transformations can generally be realized through the following three approaches (Scheme 1): (i) [1 + 1 + 3] annulation, in which (hetero)arylamines are reacted with a C3 donor and a C1 donor to construct pyrrole scaffolds. Kumar et al. [26] developed a proline-catalyzed Mannich reaction

Synthesis and characterization of S,N-heterotetracenes

• Astrid Vogt,
• Florian Henne,
• Christoph Wetzel,
• Elena Mena-Osteritz and
• Peter Bäuerle

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2636–2644, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.214

• -dibromothiophene 6 and Pd(dppf)Cl2 as catalyst to give the corresponding dibromide 7 in a yield of 70%. Organozinc species 6 was obtained from 2,3-dibromothiophene by lithiation with n-BuLi and reaction with zink dichloride. Annulation to TIPS-protected SN4-Hex 8 was achieved in 87% yield by a tandem Buchwald

• provide carbazoles covering a wide substrate and functional group spectrum [41]. Moreover, penta- and heptafused heteroacenes were prepared by the Cadogan reaction by annulation of nitrophenyl or nitrobenzothienyl precursors [42][43][44][45]. In this respect, we recently reported a Cadogan cyclization of

• -heterotetracene system SN4'' comprising the heteroatom sequence ‘SNNS’ is built-up by annulation of two ‘outer’ thiophene and two ‘inner’ pyrrole rings resulting in the symmetric sequence of heteroatoms in the tetracyclic conjugated π-system. The multistep synthesis of Pr-SN4'' 33 started from 2

Synthetic approaches to bowl-shaped π-conjugated sumanene and its congeners

• Shakeel Alvi and
• Rashid Ali

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2212–2259, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.186

Synthesis of 6,13-difluoropentacene

• Matthias W. Tripp and
• Ulrich Koert

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2136–2140, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.181

• Matthias W. Tripp Ulrich Koert Department of Chemistry, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Hans-Meerwein-Straße 4, 35034 Marburg, Germany 10.3762/bjoc.16.181 Abstract 6,13-Difluoropentacene was synthesized from 1,4-difluorobenzene. Friedel–Crafts annulation of the latter with phthalic anhydride and

Synthesis and highly efficient light-induced rearrangements of diphenylmethylene(2-benzo[b]thienyl)fulgides and fulgimides

• Vladimir P. Rybalkin,
• Sofiya Yu. Zmeeva,
• Lidiya L. Popova,
• Valerii V. Tkachev,
• Andrey N. Utenyshev,
• Olga Yu. Karlutova,
• Alexander D. Dubonosov,
• Vladimir A. Bren,
• Sergey M. Aldoshin and
• Vladimir I. Minkin

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1820–1829, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.149

• persistance to photodegradation. It has been shown that annulation of benzene rings to the five-membered rings of pyrryl, thienyl and furanyl fulgides can promote the additional improvement of these properties [10][18][19][20][21]. In accordance with these data, we have previously synthesized and studied the

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

• photocatalyst. The strategy was utilized for the C–H bond annulation of benzamides with alkynes, furnishing isoquinolones, an important moiety in various natural products (Figure 15) [78]. The C–H activation step was assisted by an 8-quinolyl DG and occurred under an oxygen atmosphere at room temperature. A

• an aromatic unit in α-position to the nitrogen atom. Sensitive functional groups such as hydroxy, silyl, and ethynyl were tolerated by this protocol. Furthermore, this methodology was also extended towards the C–H annulation with dienes. The proposed mechanism of this reaction requiring only oxygen

• elimination, producing a Co(I) species. Finally, the photoexcited eosin Y reoxidizes Co(I) to Co(II), while the photosensitizer is reoxidized by molecular oxygen, thus completing the overall catalytic process. In addition, a complementary strategy towards photocatalytic C–H annulation was disclosed by Rueping

Photocatalyzed syntheses of phenanthrenes and their aza-analogues. A review

• Alessandra Del Tito,
• Havall Othman Abdulla,
• Davide Ravelli,
• Stefano Protti and
• Maurizio Fagnoni

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1476–1488, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.123

• sulfonyl radical, prone to start a tandem sulfonylation/annulation of vinyl azides [84]. Recently, the phenanthridine core was assembled through a radical cascade triggered by the trifluoromethylthiolation of N-(o-cyanobiaryl)acrylamides. The process occurred under visible-light irradiation (6 W blue LED

• Pd(OAc)2 (5 mol %), was involved in the design of an efficient annulation between benzamides and in situ-generated arynes. The process occurred under oxygen saturated atmosphere at room temperature, likewise offering a straightforward access to the phenanthridone backbone [93]. Conclusion

An overview on disulfide-catalyzed and -cocatalyzed photoreactions

• Yeersen Patehebieke

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1418–1435, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.118

• [3 + 2] methylenecyclopentane annulations of olefins with methylenecyclopropanes. This regioselective, mild, and protecting group-free annulation requires only an equimolar amount of the reacting alkene and does not require an excess of the reacting alkene, unlike other methods [9]. Furthermore, the

• olefins, this method could not give satisfactory results. In order to overcome this weakness, the authors also developed disulfide-catalyzed [3 + 2] methylenecyclopentane annulations of unactivated alkenes with methylenecyclopropanecarboxylates and -dicarboxylates 11 (Scheme 4b) [11]. This annulation

Recent synthesis of thietanes

• Jiaxi Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1357–1410, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.116

• from that of enones. The latter underwent the [2 + 2] annulation with olefins at their olefinic center to yield cyclobutane derivatives, and rarely undergo oxetane formation completely. The reaction parameters such as solvent affected the balance between the cyclobutane and oxetane formation. Whereas

Highly selective Diels–Alder and Heck arylation reactions in a divergent synthesis of isoindolo- and pyrrolo-fused polycyclic indoles from 2-formylpyrrole

• Carlos H. Escalante,
• Eder I. Martínez-Mora,
• Carlos Espinoza-Hicks,
• Alejandro A. Camacho-Dávila,
• Fernando R. Ramos-Morales,
• Francisco Delgado and
• Joaquín Tamariz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1320–1334, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.113

• activity [15][16] and great diversity as building block [17][18]. Among the tetracyclic scaffolds, isoindolo[2,1-a]indoles have attracted a particular interest from the synthetic point of view, either as the target or the motif for designing novel annulation methodologies [19][20][21]. Indeed, isoindole

• annulation process through a Pd- or Ni-catalyzed coupling starting from the N-functionalized indoles 5 [11][19][21][28][29][30]. On the other hand, the formation of pyrrolo[3,4-e]indoles 9/10 can be achieved via a Diels–Alder cyloaddition of 2-vinylpyrroles 8 with maleimides 7 [31][32][33][34][35]. This is a

• representative example of the less common approach for the construction of the indole skeleton on substituted pyrroles by generating the benzene ring via an annulation process [36][37][38][39]. Due to our interest in transforming simple five-membered heterocycles into natural products [40][41] and complex aza

Photocatalysis with organic dyes: facile access to reactive intermediates for synthesis

• Stephanie G. E. Amos,
• Marion Garreau,
• Luca Buzzetti and
• Jerome Waser

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1163–1187, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.103

• opening of nitrogen-containing small rings was also exploited by our group in 2019 (Scheme 36) [154]. Starting from the aminocyclopropanes 36.1 and the cyclopropenes 36.2, a [3 + 2] annulation led to the bicyclo[3.1.0]hexanes 36.3. Under visible-light irradiation, the excited-state photocatalyst OD7

• performs an SET oxidation of an cyclopropylaniline 36.1, leading to an N-centred radical cation after ring opening. The latter undergoes a [3 + 2] annulation with cyclopropenes 36.2, affording a bicyclic product 36.3. The key to the broad substrate tolerance relied on using 4DPAIPN (OD7), which is a mild

A simple and easy to perform synthetic route to functionalized thienyl bicyclo[3.2.1]octadienes

• Dragana Vuk,
• Irena Škorić,
• Valentina Milašinović,
• Krešimir Molčanov and
• Željko Marinić

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1092–1099, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.96

• , which could be accompanied by a photochemical annulation. The photolysis spectra of compound's 3 isomers are shown in Figure 5, as representative examples. Figure 6 presents the UV spectra of products' 3–7 trans-isomers. All the isomers showed an absorption maxima between 300–400 nm. It can be noticed

Recent applications of porphyrins as photocatalysts in organic synthesis: batch and continuous flow approaches

• Rodrigo Costa e Silva,
• Luely Oliveira da Silva,
• Aloisio de Andrade Bartolomeu,
• Timothy John Brocksom and
• Kleber Thiago de Oliveira

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 917–955, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.83

• (NiTPP) as an efficient photocatalyst in both oxidative and reductive quenching [22]. The ability of NiTPP as both photooxidant and photoreductant was observed in maleimide annulation and chalcogenylation reactions, respectively (Scheme 7). For both processes, nickel(II) was determinant for the success

One-pot synthesis of dicyclopenta-fused peropyrene via a fourfold alkyne annulation

• Ji Ma,
• Yubin Fu,
• Junzhi Liu and
• Xinliang Feng

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 791–797, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.72

• Road, Hong Kong, China 10.3762/bjoc.16.72 Abstract A novel dicyclopenta-fused peropyrene derivative 1 was synthesized via a palladium-catalyzed four-fold alkyne annulation of 1,3,6,8-tetrabromo-2,7-diphenylpyrene (5) with diphenylacetylene. The annulative π-extension reaction toward 1 involved a

• an efficient method to develop π-extended aromatic hydrocarbons with cyclopenta moieties. Keywords: alkyne annulation; cyclopenta-fused polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; nonplanarity; peropyrene; regioselectivity; Introduction Significant efforts have been recently devoted to the synthesis of

• methods towards the (di-)cyclopenta-fused pyrene congeners (i–iii, Scheme 1) have mainly been reliant on the flash vacuum pyrolysis of suitable precursors under harsh conditions (T ≥ 900 °C), which resulted in relatively low yields [21][22][23][24]. Palladium-catalyzed annulation has been recently proven

Synthesis of C₇₀-fragment buckybowls bearing alkoxy substituents

• Yumi Yakiyama,
• Shota Hishikawa and
• Hidehiro Sakurai

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 681–690, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.66

• expansion by Wagner–Meerwein rearrangement, followed by Pd-catalyzed annulation (Figure 1) [18]. An UV–vis spectroscopy study revealed that the electronic character of 1 rather resembled that of an indenopyrene moiety than that of benzopyrene. Our synthetic route allows to easily introduce substituents on

Regioselectively α- and β-alkynylated BODIPY dyes via gold(I)-catalyzed direct C–H functionalization and their photophysical properties

• Takahide Shimada,
• Shigeki Mori,
• Masatoshi Ishida and
• Hiroyuki Furuta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 587–595, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.53

• extensively developed to tune the optoelectronic properties [21]. Therefore, the development of more efficient and shorter step synthetic methods for the BODIPY derivatives, such as direct C–H functionalizations (e.g., arylation [22][23][24][25][26][27][28], annulation [29], olefination [30], styrylation [31

Synthesis of triphenylene-fused phosphole oxides via C–H functionalizations

• Md. Shafiqur Rahman and
• Naohiko Yoshikai

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 524–529, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.48

• phosphole oxides through C–H functionalization and cross-coupling reactions. The phosphole ring was constructed in the early stage of the synthesis by a three-component assembly method featuring a 1,4-cobalt migration as the key step. Unlike other C–H activation/alkyne annulation approaches to benzo[b

Architecture and synthesis of P,N-heterocyclic phosphine ligands

• Wisdom A. Munzeiwa,
• Bernard Omondi and
• Vincent O. Nyamori

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 362–383, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.35

• monoterpene-derived pyridylphosphine ligand 58 (Scheme 10). The key step was a Kröhnke annulation reaction. The Kröhnke salt 52 was pre-synthesized from ethyl bromoacetate and pyridine and then reacted with (−)-pinocarvone (53) in the presence of ammonium acetate. The obtained keto intermediate 54 was then

Microwave-assisted synthesis of 2-substituted 4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-1,3-thiazepines from 4-aminobutanol

• María C. Mollo,
• Natalia B. Kilimciler,
• Juan A. Bisceglia and
• Liliana R. Orelli

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 32–38, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.5

• ]. On the other hand, the seven-membered iminothioethers (4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-1,3-thiazepines) have remained almost unexplored. This virtual void is probably due to the known difficulty of the annulation of seven-membered heterocyclic rings. In fact, ring closure reactions leading to medium-sized

Combining the Ugi-azide multicomponent reaction and rhodium(III)-catalyzed annulation for the synthesis of tetrazole-isoquinolone/pyridone hybrids

• Gerardo M. Ojeda,
• Prabhat Ranjan,
• Pavel Fedoseev,
• Lisandra Amable,
• Upendra K. Sharma,
• Daniel G. Rivera and
• Erik V. Van der Eycken

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2447–2457, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.237

• rhodium(III)-catalyzed intermolecular annulation has been established for the preparation of tetrazole-isoquinolone/pyridone hybrids. Several N-acylaminomethyltetrazoles were reacted with arylacetylenes to form the hybrid products in moderate to very good yields. The method relies on the capacity of the

• processes has remained underexploited [27]. Thus, we envisioned that the combination of an Ugi-azide-4CR with modern metal-catalyzed C–C bond-forming methods would enable access to structurally novel compounds featuring hybrid heterocycle platforms. We focused on metal-catalyzed annulation approaches that

• /pyridone hybrids by means of a reaction sequence comprising an Ugi-azide-4CR and a Rh(III)-catalyzed annulation as key steps (Scheme 1D). Results and Discussion In previous works, our group has described a variety of synthetic approaches that combine the diversity-generating character of multicomponent

A review of the total syntheses of triptolide

• Xiang Zhang,
• Zaozao Xiao and
• Hongtao Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1984–1995, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.194

• syntheses of triptolide. In 2014, Li and co-workers further reported a formal asymmetric synthesis of triptolide from tetralone 24 (Figure 2, route B and Scheme 2) [50], featuring a Robinson annulation of Nazarov’s reagent 25 with 5-methoxy-2-tetralone 24 in the presence of enantiomerically pure (R)-α

Recent advances on the transition-metal-catalyzed synthesis of imidazopyridines: an updated coverage

• Gagandeep Kour Reen,
• Ashok Kumar and
• Pratibha Sharma

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1612–1704, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.165

A novel three-component reaction between isocyanides, alcohols or thiols and elemental sulfur: a mild, catalyst-free approach towards O-thiocarbamates and dithiocarbamates

• András György Németh,
• György Miklós Keserű and
• Péter Ábrányi-Balogh

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1523–1533, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.155

• subsequent one-pot transformations. In order to demonstrate this capability, we performed the multicomponent domino annulation between isocyanide 1a, sulfur and methyl anthranilate (6) in DMSO in the presence of NaOH at 85 °C that provided 3-(2,6-dimethylphenyl)-2-thioxo-2,3-dihydroquinazolin-4(1H)-one (7

• functional group tolerance to halogen, olefin and nitrile groups among others. Moreover, this multicomponent reaction is suitable for a one-pot cascade annulation providing a thioxo dihydroquinazolinone derivative in a metal-free approach. Compared to other reported syntheses of thiocarbamates, this method

Switchable selectivity in Pd-catalyzed [3 + 2] annulations of γ-oxy-2-cycloalkenones with 3-oxoglutarates: C–C/C–C vs C–C/O–C bond formation

• Yang Liu,
• Julie Oble and
• Giovanni Poli

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1107–1115, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.107

• Yang Liu Julie Oble Giovanni Poli Sorbonne Université, Faculté des Sciences et Ingénierie, CNRS, Institut Parisien de Chimie Moléculaire, IPCM, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France 10.3762/bjoc.15.107 Abstract Two complementary [3 + 2] annulation protocols between 3-oxoglutarates and cyclic γ-oxy

• success of this bis-nucleophile/bis-electrophile [3 + 2] annulation is its well-defined step chronology in combination with the total chemoselectivity of the former step. This [3 + 2] C–C/O–C bond forming annulation protocol could be also extended to 1,3,5-triketones as well as 1,3-bis-sulfonylpropan-2

• -one bis-nucleophiles. Keywords: 1,4-addition; annulation; decarboxylation; palladium; Pd-catalyzed allylation reaction; Introduction The development of new strategies for the synthesis of complex carbocyclic and heterocyclic structures remains a general topic for the synthetic chemists [1]. In the