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

A comprehensive review of flow chemistry techniques tailored to the flavours and fragrances industries

• Guido Gambacorta,
• James S. Sharley and
• Ian R. Baxendale

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1181–1312, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.90

Prins cyclization-mediated stereoselective synthesis of tetrahydropyrans and dihydropyrans: an inspection of twenty years

• Asha Budakoti,
• Pradip Kumar Mondal,
• Prachi Verma and
• Jagadish Khamrai

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 932–963, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.77

• THPs was exclusively generated via Prins reaction using FeCl3 as a Lewis acid catalyst. Excellent stereoselectivity was obtained for a remarkably broad range of substrates under mild reaction conditions (Scheme 64) [106]. The authors proposed fundamental insights into the mechanism of the reaction

Microwave-assisted multicomponent reactions in heterocyclic chemistry and mechanistic aspects

• Shivani Gulati,
• Stephy Elza John and
• Nagula Shankaraiah

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 819–865, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.71

Valorisation of plastic waste via metal-catalysed depolymerisation

• Francesca Liguori,
• Carmen Moreno-Marrodán and
• Pierluigi Barbaro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 589–621, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.53

Helicene synthesis by Brønsted acid-catalyzed cycloaromatization in HFIP [(CF₃)₂CHOH]

• Takeshi Fujita,
• Noriaki Shoji,
• Nao Yoshikawa and
• Junji Ichikawa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 396–403, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.35

• gram-scale syntheses of higher-order helicenes, double helical helicenes, and heterohelicenes. Keywords: acid; catalyst; cyclization; fluoroalcohol; helicenes; Introduction Helicenes are a class of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) that consist of ortho-fused aromatic rings arranged in a helical

Hydrazides in the reaction with hydroxypyrrolines: less nucleophilicity – more diversity

• Dmitrii A. Shabalin,
• Evgeniya E. Ivanova,
• Igor A. Ushakov,
• Elena Yu. Schmidt and
• Boris A. Trofimov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 319–324, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.29

• TFA (Table 1, entry 6) did not significantly promote the 3aa→4aa transformation, that was apparently caused by the deactivation of the acid catalyst by ammonia, released in the preceding step (vide infra for the mechanism discussion). To prevent this process, a stepwise addition of TFA was tested

• traces of the 1,4-dihydropyridazine 4af were detected following the two-step, one-pot protocol (Scheme 3). Apparently, the basic pyridine nitrogen atoms of intermediate 3af deactivate the acid catalyst, whilst the use of 3.4 equiv of TFA causes the full protonation of the pyridine rings thus making them

The preparation and properties of 1,1-difluorocyclopropane derivatives

• Kymbat S. Adekenova,
• Peter B. Wyatt and
• Sergazy M. Adekenov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 245–272, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.25

• , Br, Scheme 63) [114]. In this transformation, BX3 played a dual role as both a Lewis acid catalyst and a source of the halide ion nucleophile. This reaction resulted in the generation of the trifluoromethyl ketones 145 and halodifluoromethyl ketones 146 and 147 in high yields. As in the previous

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

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

• complexation to the Lewis acid in RCA reactions, an auxiliary (Z) is required; this auxiliary can be easily removed and recovered. Shibasaki and Kumagai very recently developed a similar reaction using a copper Lewis acid catalyst and a different auxiliary containing amide 282 with α-silyl amines 277 to

•  46) [112]. The proposed mechanism involves a reductive quenching cycle using TEEDA as a sacrificial reductant to generate [Ru]•−. Simultaneously the chiral Lewis acid catalyst forms complex 286 with both starting materials. [Ru]•− then reduces the activated aldehyde to give ketyl radical anion 286

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

• in 10% yield. The experiments in Table 1, entries 6–11 were next performed with the aim to favor the 1,4-addition process, and thus to form the indolone 7b. Removing the acid catalyst from the reaction mixture (Table 1, entry 6) did not affect the 6b:7b ratio obtained in Table 1, entry 5. While in

One-pot synthesis of isosorbide from cellulose or lignocellulosic biomass: a challenge?

• Isaline Bonnin,
• Raphaël Mereau,
• Thierry Tassaing and
• Karine De Oliveira Vigier

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1713–1721, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.143

• dehydration of ᴅ-sorbitol using a strong acid catalyst [10][11]. ᴅ-Sorbitol is produced from the hydrogenation of glucose obtained mostly from the hydrolysis of starch, but also from sucrose or cellulose. Consequently, the cellulose valorization can be realized from the one-pot conversion of cellulose to

• and a supported metal catalyst The conversion of cellulose or lignocellulosic biomass to isosorbide was studied by combining a homogeneous acid catalyst to promote the hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose and the dehydration of sorbitol to isosorbide and a supported metal catalyst to hydrogenate glucose

• process to increase the isosorbide yield. One important parameter is also the acidity strengths of the acid catalyst used. An appropriate acidity is required to depolymerize cellulose to glucose and to dehydrate sorbitol to isosorbide. If the acidity is too high, byproducts are formed decreasing the yield

Rearrangement of o-(pivaloylaminomethyl)benzaldehydes: an experimental and computational study

• Csilla Hargitai,
• Györgyi Koványi-Lax,
• Tamás Nagy,
• Péter Ábrányi-Balogh,
• András Dancsó,
• Gábor Tóth,
• Judit Halász,
• Angéla Pandur,
• Gyula Simig and
• Balázs Volk

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2020, 16, 1636–1648, doi:10.3762/bjoc.16.136

• turned out that the acid catalyst (TFA in this case), as expected, had a crucial role in the protonation and deprotonation as well as in the dehydration and hydration elementary steps of the reaction sequence. Without catalyst, the 9a→11a→4a transformations required an energy investment of 150.7 and

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

• and heterogeneous Brønsted acid catalyst, which are both required for independent steps in the synthesis [132]. They suggested that the porphyrin was protonated by the amberlyst-15 sulphonate groups and immobilised to the solid surface by electrostatic forces, rationalising the observed change in

• to fuse samarium oxide nanoparticles to TiO2 and ceria (CeO2) as a bifunctional heterogeneous photoredox Lewis acid catalyst for reductive cyclisation reactions, previously reported with ruthenium transition metal complex photocatalysts [157]. Both electrochemical and photochemical deposition

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

• , providing some dissolved F-1 as the real catalyst. In all cases, the catalyst could easily be recovered and recycled. Keywords: Brønsted acid catalyst; charge-assisted hydrogen-bonded framework; Diels–Alder; epoxide ring opening; heterogeneous catalyst; Introduction Tremendous successes in homogeneous

• Brønsted acid catalyst) cation exchange resin IR-120, which contains sulfonic acid functionalities, was mixed in its hydrogen form with aniline to give a model of F-1. An attempted use of the resulting compound with the same amount of ammonium groups as in F-1 for the conversion of the epoxide 2 into the

• “breathing”. The material served as a new type of Brønsted acid catalyst in a series of reactions, including epoxide ring opening reactions and a Diels–Alder reaction. A second role for NDS was that one of its sulfonate oxygen atoms could form hydrogen bonds with water whilst leaving the other two oxygen

A review of asymmetric synthetic organic electrochemistry and electrocatalysis: concepts, applications, recent developments and future directions

• Munmun Ghosh,
• Valmik S. Shinde and
• Magnus Rueping

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2710–2746, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.264

• chiral Co(II)-(R,R)salen complex 83 in DMF saturated with CO2 resulted in the formation of 84 in a low yield but with good enantioselectivity (Scheme 31). Very recently, Meggers research group described an application of an asymmetric Lewis acid catalyst using electricity to provide a synthetic route

• towards chiral 1,4-dicarbonyls bearing tertiary and all-carbon quaternary stereocenters via oxidative cross coupling of 2-acylimidazoles 85 with silyl enol ethers 86 (Scheme 32). Chiral Rh complex 87 was exploited as a Lewis acid catalyst for the purpose of activating the substrate towards anodic

• and his group developed an electrochemical strategy for the asymmetric alkylation of 2-acylimidazole derivatives 94 with substituted para-methylphenols 95 using Ni(OAc)2 as a Lewis acid catalyst in presence of chiral diamine ligand 96 (Scheme 34) [71]. Based on their detailed mechanistic studies, the

Friedel–Crafts approach to the one-pot synthesis of methoxy-substituted thioxanthylium salts

• Kenta Tanaka,
• Yuta Tanaka,
• Mami Kishimoto,
• Yujiro Hoshino and
• Kiyoshi Honda

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2105–2112, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.208

• not been examined. We have developed the synthesis of multisubstituted condensed heterocyclic compounds in the presence of an acid catalyst [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. More recently, we have reported the design and synthesis of thioxanthylium organophotoredox catalysts, which can work under

Application of chiral 2-isoxazoline for the synthesis of syn-1,3-diol analogs

• Juanjuan Feng,
• Tianyu Li,
• Jiaxin Zhang and
• Peng Jiao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1840–1847, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.179

• the amount of the chiral Lewis acid catalyst led to a decrease of both the ee and the yield. Desilylation of the 2-isoxazolidine 1 was effected in CHCl3 using catalytic amounts of p-toluenesulfonic acid (PTSA). Though the yield of the in situ-generated 2-isoxazoline 2 bearing the 1,3-oxazolidin-2-one

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

• , inexpensive, water-tolerant Lewis acid catalyst in the formation of both carbon–carbon and carbon–heteroatom bonds, and thereby the formation of various biologically promising organic compounds [68]. Important advances in scandium-catalyzed chemistry include [4 + 2] and [2 + 2] cycloaddition reactions, Baeyer

Enantioselective PCCP Brønsted acid-catalyzed aza-Piancatelli rearrangement

• Gabrielle R. Hammersley,
• Meghan F. Nichol,
• Helena C. Steffens,
• Jose M. Delgado,
• Gesine K. Veits and
• Javier Read de Alaniz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1569–1574, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.160

• aza-Piancatelli reaction, we sought to identify other asymmetric catalytic systems capable of controlling the absolute stereochemistry. To this end, we envisioned that the chiral pentacarboxycyclopentadiene (PCCP) Brønsted acid catalyst (8) recently developed by the Lambert lab might be suitable

• (Figure 1) [38]. First, the pKa values measured in acetonitrile (MeCN) are lower than chiral phosphoric acids (Brønsted acid pKa = 8.85 vs chiral phosphoric acids pKa = 12–14) [38]. Given the enhanced acidity, we reasoned that this type of chiral Brønsted acid catalyst could facilitate the dehydration

• . Finally, this new catalyst can be produced inexpensively and on scale, features that are attractive for developing a wide range of asymmetric transformations. Results and Discussion Herein, we describe our initial efforts in this area using chiral Brønsted acid catalyst 8. Our investigations began by

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

• of a highly active carbocation Lewis acid catalyst. The stereocontrol potential of the chiral tritylium ion pair was demonstrated by its application in an enantioselective Diels–Alder reaction of anthracene. Keywords: anthracene; carbocation catalysis; Diels–Alder reaction; Fe(III)-based phosphate

Robust perfluorophenylboronic acid-catalyzed stereoselective synthesis of 2,3-unsaturated O-, C-, N- and S-linked glycosides

• Madhu Babu Tatina,
• Xia Mengxin,
• Rao Peilin and
• Zaher M. A. Judeh

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1275–1280, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.125

• developed for the synthesis of 2,3-unsaturated C-, O-, N- and S-linked glycosides (enosides) using 20 mol % perflurophenylboronic acid catalyst via Ferrier rearrangement. Using this protocol, D-glucals and L-rhamnals reacted with various C-, O-, N- and S-nucleophiles to give a wide range of glycosides in up

• results obtained using boron trifluoride diethyl etherate [32]. We then applied the perfluorophenylboronic acid catalyst to promote the reaction between 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-D-glucal (4a) and O- and S-nucleophiles (Figure 2). The Ferrier-catalyzed rearrangements of 2-substituted sugars such as 2,3,4,6

• blocks especially for natural product synthesis [36][37][38][39][40]. Therefore, we used the perfluorophenyl boronic acid catalyst in the reaction between 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-D-glucal (1a) and benzyl alcohol, n-butyl alcohol, cyclohexyl alcohol and p-toluenethiol (Figure 2). Gratifyingly, the reaction

Extending mechanochemical porphyrin synthesis to bulkier aromatics: tetramesitylporphyrin

• Qiwen Su and
• Tamara D. Hamilton

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1149–1153, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.111

• work on mechanochemical porphyrin synthesis has demonstrated that it is possible to synthesize tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP) by grinding benzaldehyde and pyrrole (two liquids) in the presence of an acid catalyst, followed by oxidation with DDQ in minimal amounts of solvent [19]. TPP was produced in a

• the first-reported conditions of the Lindsey synthesis, mesitaldehyde “failed to give good yields” of TMP [11]. Later studies of modified reaction conditions employing boron trifluoride as the acid catalyst, and small amounts of ethanol as a co-catalyst, were successful in producing TMP with yields

• of an acid catalyst and ground using a mixer mill for 10 minutes (Scheme 2), a pink powder is formed. As in the case of benzaldehyde, the powder is found to contain no porphyrin, evidenced by the lack of a Soret band at 410–420 nm in the electronic spectrum. Our work with benzaldehyde showed that

Multicomponent reactions (MCRs): a useful access to the synthesis of benzo-fused γ-lactams

• Edorta Martínez de Marigorta,
• Jesús M. de Los Santos,
• Ana M. Ochoa de Retana,
• Javier Vicario and
• Francisco Palacios

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1065–1085, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.104

• acid catalyst for this transformation. At room temperature, the product of this environmentally friendly Strecker reaction is nitrile derivative 53 (R2 = CN, Scheme 15, method A), while at reflux carboxamide 53 (R2 = CONH2, Scheme 15, method A) is obtained. Notoriously, aromatic amines 2 did not work

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

• ’-acetal-protected 2’-deoxythymidines were prepared using 7 equiv of the appropriate reagent 1a–e with the suitably protected thymidine 2 or 5 (Scheme 1) in the presence of p-toluenesulfonic acid as the acid catalyst. A suitable amount of the acid catalyst is 0.5 to 1 mol %, with which the reaction takes

• exception, as the electron-withdrawing trifluoroethyl group reduces the reactivity and the reaction time had to be increased to several hours. In addition, the yields of the protected products 3e and 6e also remained rather low, around 35%. If a larger amount than 1 mol % of the acid catalyst is used and