Photoorganocatalytic trifluoromethylation of (het)arenes in green conditions

• Egor N. Boronin,
• Svetlana E. Kaurkina,
• Milena M. Svetlakova,
• Anton S. Bolshakov,
• Maxim V. Arsenyev,
• Vasilii F. Otvagin,
• Alexey Yu. Fedorov,
• Timothy Noël and
• Alexander V. Nyuchev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2026, 22, 662–671, doi:10.3762/bjoc.22.50

• -based complexes to other transition metals and organic photocatalysts, as well as diverse CF3 sources. The major limitations of these methodologies include the high cost of catalysts and trifluoromethylating reagents, along with the use of toxic species such as transition-metal complexes and hazardous

Kinetic resolution of racemic planar-chiral vinylcymantrenes by molybdenum-catalyzed asymmetric metathesis dimerization

• Haruna Imazu,
• Hitoshi Izu,
• Yasuhiro Ohki and
• Masamichi Ogasawara

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2026, 22, 568–574, doi:10.3762/bjoc.22.42

• metathesis chemistry, and various chiral metal-alkylidene catalysts have been prepared over the past two decades [6][7][8][9]. Since 2002, our group and others have been interested in utilizing the olefin metathesis reaction for the modulation of various transition-metal complexes [10][11][12][13] thanks to

• the excellent tolerance of the Mo-/Ru-metathesis catalysts toward the organometallic substrates. The olefin metathesis protocols could be extended to the asymmetric synthesis of diverse planar-chiral transition metal complexes either by the kinetic resolution of the racemic substrates [14][15][16] or

• by the desymmetrization of the Cs-symmetric substrates [17][18][19] by the use of an appropriate chiral catalyst (see the drawing in Table 1 for the structures of the representative chiral molybdenum precatalysts used in this study) [20][21][22][23]. Planar-chiral transition-metal complexes have been

Enantioselective radical chemistry: a bright future ahead

• Anna C. Renner,
• Sagar S. Thorat,
• Hariharaputhiran Subramanian and
• Mukund P. Sibi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 2283–2296, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.174

• different transition-metal complexes have been employed in metalloradical catalysis, including porphyrin complexes of cobalt(II) [55][56] and iron(III) [57][58]. Both cobalt in oxidation state +2 and iron in oxidation state +3 can be viewed as persistent metalloradicals. Zhang and co-workers reported a

• , organocatalysts, transition-metal complexes, and enzymes. In many cases, low catalyst loadings have been achieved, especially in transition-metal catalyzed, photoredox, and biocatalytic methods. Photoredox catalysis has had a tremendous impact on the field of organic radical chemistry. In many modern radical

Photochemical reduction of acylimidazolium salts

• Michael Jakob,
• Nick Bechler,
• Hassan Abdelwahab,
• Fabian Weber,
• Janos Wasternack,
• Leonardo Kleebauer,
• Jan P. Götze and
• Matthew N. Hopkinson

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1973–1983, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.153

• transition-metal complexes such as the Grubbs’ second-generation metathesis catalyst, NHCs are now also well-established as organocatalysts. With the first application pre-dating the unambiguous characterization of a free NHC by nearly 50 years, NHCs can facilitate numerous synthetically attractive

Stereoselective electrochemical intramolecular imino-pinacol reaction: a straightforward entry to enantiopure piperazines

• Margherita Gazzotti,
• Fabrizio Medici,
• Valerio Chiroli,
• Laura Raimondi,
• Sergio Rossi and
• Maurizio Benaglia

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1897–1908, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.147

• photochemical and electrochemical methods, have been explored. Over the past two decades a variety of light-promoted imino-pinacol coupling reactions have been developed, involving the use of catalytic transition-metal complexes [35][36], organic dyes [37][38][39], and polyaromatic compounds [40][41] as

General method for the synthesis of enaminones via photocatalysis

• Paula Pérez-Ramos,
• Raquel G. Soengas and
• Humberto Rodríguez-Solla

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 1535–1543, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.116

• the reactivity of unsaturated esters towards an aza-Michael addition is the use of transition metal complexes as catalysts/promoters [40][41][42]. Considering this background, we reasoned that Ni(II) could be a suitable catalyst for the amination of unsaturated systems. Initial investigations were

Red light excitation: illuminating photocatalysis in a new spectrum

• Lucas Fortier,
• Corentin Lefebvre and
• Norbert Hoffmann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 296–326, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.22

• photocatalyst has shown superior yields compared to free-base and other phthalocyanin first-row transition-metal complexes, such as nickel. The choice of solvent was also critical for optimizing the reaction efficiency: a mixture of pyridine and methanol not only improved the yield but also has helped to

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

• macrocycles as electrocatalysts Development of efficient renewable technologies is a driving force in the efforts to achieve sustainability with the same or even increasing demands for energy worldwide. In this context, transition-metal complexes of tetraazamacrocycles (N4-macrocycle) such as porphyrins

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

• and type II’ β-hairpin. Even though the latter was consistently lower in ground state energy (up to 6 kcal/mol for some catalysts), predictive models for enantioselectivity were found for both catalyst conformers in separate MLR models. For organophosphorous ligands of transition metal complexes, the

Benzylic C(sp³)–H fluorination

• Alexander P. Atkins,
• Alice C. Dean and
• Alastair J. J. Lennox

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1527–1547, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.137

• transition-metal complexes to generate metal–fluorine bonds capable of FAT to benzylic substrates. In a follow-up to their work using electrophilic fluorine sources for palladium-catalysed benzylic C–H fluorination (Figure 5), the Sanford group demonstrated in 2012 the same transformation could be achieved

Generation of alkyl and acyl radicals by visible-light photoredox catalysis: direct activation of C–O bonds in organic transformations

• Mithu Roy,
• Bitan Sardar,
• Itu Mallick and
• Dipankar Srimani

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1348–1375, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.119

• . Different photocatalysts, such as transition metal complexes [23][24], organic dyes [25], and semiconductors [26], can be employed for visible-light-induced chemical processes. The choice of photocatalyst depends on the specific requirements of the catalytic process, including the type of reaction, the

A laterally-fused N-heterocyclic carbene framework from polysubstituted aminoimidazo[5,1-b]oxazol-6-ium salts

• Andrew D. Gillie,
• Matthew G. Wakeling,
• Bethan L. Greene,
• Louise Male and
• Paul W. Davies

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 621–627, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.54

• aminide 7 in good yield on a gram scale (Scheme 1b). With the novel 3-aminoimidazo[5,1-b]oxazol-6-ium salt in hand, we examined its use as an NHC precursor for the preparation of late transition metal complexes. Treating compound 9a with triethylamine and either dimethyl sulfide gold(I) chloride or copper

Switchable molecular tweezers: design and applications

• Pablo Msellem,
• Maksym Dekthiarenko,
• Nihal Hadj Seyd and
• Guillaume Vives

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 504–539, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.45

• using metal complexes as switching units (Figure 20). This concept named “weak link approach” (WLA) [78] uses square planar d8-transition metal complexes with two hemilabile bidentate ligands composed of a strong binding site (phosphorus) and a weaker one (generally sulfur, oxygen, selenium, or nitrogen

Radical chemistry in polymer science: an overview and recent advances

• Zixiao Wang,
• Feichen Cui,
• Yang Sui and
• Jiajun Yan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1580–1603, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.116

• (OMRP) is also a commonly used polymerization method, which uses transition-metal complexes such as titanium and vanadium for coordination polymerization [69]. However, due to the high cost of these complexes and their post-processing, OMRP is not widely used. The chain termination reaction of OMRP is

• mechanism (cf. section 3.2) [86]. 2.3 Metal-free ring opening metathesis polymerization (MF-ROMP) ROMP is a powerful and broadly applicable technique for synthesizing polymers. Traditional ROMP systems are initiated by transition-metal complexes and Ru-based alkylidene complexes, which are also known as

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

• of novel synthetic methods and strategies toward nitrile group construction continues to be a focus for synthetic chemists. The cross-coupling reactions of C–C bonds catalyzed by transition-metal complexes play a crucial role in modern organic synthesis, as they make it feasible to synthesize complex

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

• employing chiral auxiliaries [4][5] and asymmetric phase-transfer catalysis [6][7]. The former approach is commonly based on the application of chiral derivatives of glycine containing structurally diverse chiral auxiliaries, both cyclic [8][9][10][11] and acyclic [12][13]. Transition-metal complexes

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

• to the wide area of applications of mechanochemical synthesis but also showcase that transition metal complexes bearing additional functional groups can be prepared with a ball milling synthesis. We think that our protocol could be useful for the atom economic preparation of other complex catalysts

Ionic multiresonant thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters for light emitting electrochemical cells

• Merve Karaman,
• Abhishek Kumar Gupta,
• Subeesh Madayanad Suresh,
• Tomas Matulaitis,
• Lorenzo Mardegan,
• Daniel Tordera,
• Henk J. Bolink,
• Sen Wu,
• Stuart Warriner,
• Ifor D. Samuel and
• Eli Zysman-Colman

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1311–1321, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.136

• and emission takes place within the intrinsic region [2][3][4][5][6]. Two families of widely investigated emitters for LEECs are ionic transition metal complexes (iTMCs) [7][8][9][10] and conjugated polymers (CPs) [4]. From the early use of ruthenium(II) complexes, a significant amount of research has

Synthesis of piperidine and pyrrolidine derivatives by electroreductive cyclization of imine with terminal dihaloalkanes in a flow microreactor

• Yuki Naito,
• Naoki Shida and
• Mahito Atobe

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 350–359, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.39

• which realizes for the construction of medium-sized saturated nitrogen heterocycles [21]. Although the process enables the rapid construction of saturated nitrogen heterocycles from acyclic precursors, it requires homogeneous precious transition metal complexes as photocatalysts. On the other hand

Earth-abundant 3d transition metals on the rise in catalysis

• Nikolaos Kaplaneris and
• Lutz Ackermann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 86–88, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.8

• industries as one of the most powerful methods for molecular assembly. With regard to the cost of goods and the allowance of trace metal impurities in medicinally relevant compounds, 3d transition metal complexes, such as those of iron, copper, cobalt or nickel, represent exciting, more sustainable

Methodologies for the synthesis of quaternary carbon centers via hydroalkylation of unactivated olefins: twenty years of advances

• Thiago S. Silva and
• Fernando Coelho

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1565–1590, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.112

• , numerous hydroalkylation methodologies have emerged that have explored the diverse reactivity patterns of the olefin double bond. This review presents examples of olefins acting as electrophilic partners when coordinated with electrophilic transition-metal complexes or, in more recent approaches, when used

• . The efficiency of the solvent radical cage in maintaining the geminate radical pair could be modulated by stereoelectronic changes in the ligands of the transition-metal complexes to favor a desired pathway. One reaction particularity that was sensible to the solvent cage efficiency was the

Synthesis, structural characterization, and optical properties of benzo[f]naphtho[2,3-b]phosphoindoles

• Mio Matsumura,
• Takahiro Teramoto,
• Masato Kawakubo,
• Masatoshi Kawahata,
• Yuki Murata,
• Kentaro Yamaguchi,
• Masanobu Uchiyama and
• Shuji Yasuike

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 671–677, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.56

• approaches for phosphine oxide B [12][13][14], alkylated products C [15], and transition metal complexes D [16][17] have also been developed. However, for isomers E [18][19] and G [20], only the synthetic method for pentavalent phosphine oxides has been reported. To the best of our knowledge, the synthesis

Catalytic trifluoromethylation of iodoarenes by use of 2-trifluoromethylated benzimidazoline as trifluoromethylating reagent

• Tatsuhiro Uchikura,
• Nanami Kamiyama,
• Taisuke Ishikawa and
• Takahiko Akiyama

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 2442–2447, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.198

• ; catalysis; copper; fluorine chemistry; trifluoromethylation; Introduction The introduction of a trifluoromethyl group is one of the most attractive reactions in drug discovery [1][2]. In the past decade, trifluoromethylation reactions of aryl halides in the presence of transition-metal complexes were

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

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

• palladium(II) was carried out in the presence of PdCl2(MeCN)2 in a stepwise manner, confirmed by UV–vis spectroscopic technique. The cyclopentadienyl (Cp) ligand has its own identity in the field of organometallic chemistry as a plethora of transition metal complexes contain this moiety in their structures