Dioxazolones as electrophilic amide sources in copper-catalyzed and -mediated transformations

• Seungmin Lee,
• Minsuk Kim,
• Hyewon Han and
• Jongwoo Son

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 200–216, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.12

• widely used as N-acylamide sources in amidation processes of challenging substrates, typically employing precious transition metals. However, these catalytic systems often present several challenges associated with cost, toxicity, stability, and recyclability. Among the 3d transition metals, copper

• catalysts have been gaining increasing attention owing to their abundance, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability. Recently, these catalytic systems have been applied to the chemical transformation of dioxazolones, conferring a convenient protocol towards amidated products. This review highlights recent

• increasing interest as affordable, versatile, and sustainable catalytic systems. These catalysts are extensively employed in organic synthesis owing to their cost-effectiveness, reduced toxicity, and natural abundance [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. The use of copper salts has enabled a variety of

Recent advances in electrochemical copper catalysis for modern organic synthesis

• Yemin Kim and
• Won Jun Jang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 155–178, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.9

• through oxidative addition, followed by transmetalation and reductive elimination, to obtain the desired product. Throughout the catalytic cycle, the catalyst undergoes conversion between [M]n and [M]n+2 (Figure 1) [11]. However, using alkyl electrophiles as coupling partners in cross-coupling reactions

• elimination, produces C–H alkynylated arene 10, which then forms the final product 3 through intramolecular cyclization. Finally, the Cu(I) complex 9 produced via reductive elimination is reoxidized at the anode to regenerate the Cu(II) complex 4, completing the catalytic cycle. Yao and Shi developed the

• asymmetric C(sp3)–H alkynylation of tertiary cyclic amines by merging Cu(II)/TEMPO catalysis with electrochemistry to yield chiral C1-alkynylated tetrahydroisoquinolines (THIQs) (Figure 5) [50]. As a co-catalytic redox mediator, TEMPO plays an essential role in the formation of iminium intermediate 15 and in

Nickel-catalyzed cross-coupling of 2-fluorobenzofurans with arylboronic acids via aromatic C–F bond activation

• Takeshi Fujita,
• Haruna Yabuki,
• Ryutaro Morioka,
• Kohei Fuchibe and
• Junji Ichikawa

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 146–154, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.8

• approach to complex molecule synthesis. Despite considerable efforts to develop various catalytic systems, the activation of aromatic C–F bonds often requires high temperatures [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Therefore, methods for activating aromatic C–F bonds at ambient temperature remain underdeveloped. We have

• detected [40]. High-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) analysis of the reaction mixture also supported the formation of Eb (calcd, 804.4474; found, 804.4449). Additionally, 79% of 1b remained, while the catalytic reaction between 1b and 2a was completed in 13 h, yielding 3ba in 96% (Scheme 2). These

Cu(OTf)₂-catalyzed multicomponent reactions

• Sara Colombo,
• Camilla Loro,
• Egle M. Beccalli,
• Gianluigi Broggini and
• Marta Papis

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 122–145, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.7

• ; heteropolycycles; multicomponent reactions; one-pot reaction; Introduction Copper has gained a relevant role in organic synthesis as an alternative to precious metals due to its low toxicity, ease of handling, high catalytic activity, and cost-effectiveness [1][2]. In recent years, Cu(OTf)2 has significantly

• emerged among copper catalysts because it can act as a precursor to triflic acid in addition to a powerful copper-catalytic effect. Indeed, Cu(OTf)2 has proven to be an excellent surrogate for triflic acid compared with other metal triflates because it is inexpensive and exhibits high activity with low

• . Among various Lewis acids, only Cu(OTf)2 in combination with TMSCN was effective or a valuable alternative was the use of acetone cyanohydrin combined with a catalytic amount of TEA (5 mol %). The mechanism involves the formation of an imine facilitating the addition of the nitrile group. Among the

Recent advances in organocatalytic atroposelective reactions

• Henrich Szabados and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 55–121, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.6

• acids feature as the most prolific catalytic structure. The last part of the article discusses hydrogen-bond-donating catalysts and other catalyst motifs such as phase-transfer catalysts. Keywords: asymmetric organocatalysis; atropoisomers; atroposelective synthesis; axial chirality; stereogenic axis

• ; Introduction Stereoselective catalytic formation of chiral compounds is one of the critical tasks of modern organic synthesis [1]. The catalytic formation of compounds with a center of chirality has been the focus of countless works and can now be considered a matured area. On the other hand, the generation of

• discovery and medicine [4]. However, a lack of reliable synthetic methods for their preparation hindered the broader application of axially chiral compounds. In recent decades, there has been increased interest in the catalytic syntheses of axially chiral compounds by catalytic [5][6], especially

Facile one-pot reduction of β-nitrostyrenes to phenethylamines using sodium borohydride and copper(II) chloride

• Laura D’Andrea and
• Simon Jademyr

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 39–46, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.4

• reduction can be accomplished via catalytic hydrogenation, involving stepwise reactions and workup, use of additional reagents, and reaction time between 3 and 24 hours [11][12]. Most commonly, metal hydrides are employed, typically lithium aluminum hydride [13][14][15][16][17][18], requiring an inert

• NaBH4/CuCl2 system effectively facilitates this transformation and provide an account of its application to the β-nitrostyrene examples presented in Figure 1. Result and Discussion Herein, we demonstrate that NaBH4, in combination with catalytic amounts of CuCl2, is a simple and higher yielding method

• Jackson mechanisms (product (a)), which, to date, were only associated to the catalytic hydrogenation of nitrobenzene analogues [35][36][37] (Figure 3). An attempt to identify the higher molecular masses observed by MS was made, and two intermediate structures are proposed in Figure 3. Together with (a

Emerging trends in the optimization of organic synthesis through high-throughput tools and machine learning

• Pablo Quijano Velasco,
• Kedar Hippalgaonkar and
• Balamurugan Ramalingam

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 10–38, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.3

• reaction steps. Nandiwale et al. [61] reported the autonomous optimization of three multiphase catalytic reactions involving the handling of solid substrates, operating the photoreactor, and feeding of the slurries, catalysts, and inorganic bases in an automated flow platform comprising a continuous

• , photoredox-catalytic, and nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions, as well as in the two-step synthesis of cyclobutanone. The molecules synthesized under the optimal conditions are presented in Figure 6b, employing the stable noisy optimization by branch and fit (SNOBFIT) algorithm. SNOBFIT offers a

Non-covalent organocatalyzed enantioselective cyclization reactions of α,β-unsaturated imines

• Sergio Torres-Oya and
• Mercedes Zurro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3221–3255, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.268

• enables the synthesis of structurally distinct cyclic derivatives which are difficult to access by other methodologies, using an efficient and atom-economical path from simple precursors. In recent years several asymmetric catalytic cyclization strategies have been accomplished for the construction of N

• -heterocycles using various catalytic systems such as chiral metal catalysts, chiral Lewis acids or chiral organocatalysts. This review presents an overview of the recent advances in enantioselective cyclization reactions of 1-azadienes catalyzed by non-covalent organocatalysts. Keywords: α,β-unsaturated

• materials [1][2]. Due to their importance, different synthetic routes involving stoichiometric and catalytic approaches have been developed. The α,β-unsaturated imines, also known as conjugated imines or 1-azadienes, are useful precursors for the construction of aza-heterocycles. Due to their structure

Synthesis of 2H-azirine-2,2-dicarboxylic acids and their derivatives

• Anastasiya V. Agafonova,
• Mikhail S. Novikov and
• Alexander F. Khlebnikov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3191–3197, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.264

• derivatives [1]. In particular, the catalytic isomerization of 5-chloroisoxazoles allows the generation of azirine-2-carbonyl chlorides, which can be easily converted into a variety of azirine-2-carboxylic acid derivatives by reactions with nucleophilic reagents. Using this approach, numerous 2-(1H-pyrazol-1

Multicomponent reactions driving the discovery and optimization of agents targeting central nervous system pathologies

• Lucía Campos-Prieto,
• Aitor García-Rey,
• Eddy Sotelo and
• Ana Mallo-Abreu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3151–3173, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.261

• post-modification reactions. Examples of these reactions include the Ugi/Dieckmann reactions, Ugi/Robinson–Gabriel reactions, Ugi/Buchwald–Hartwig reactions, Ugi reaction followed by a catalytic aza-Wittig cyclization, Ugi reaction followed by SNAr strategy, Ugi/Heck reactions, Ugi/Huisgen

Hypervalent iodine-mediated intramolecular alkene halocyclisation

• Charu Bansal,
• Oliver Ruggles,
• Albert C. Rowett and
• Alastair J. J. Lennox

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3113–3133, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.258

• formed. The use of a chiral aryl iodide was tested, which gave products with low enantiomeric excess. However, these preliminary trials represent the first example of a catalytic, enantioselective HVI-mediated fluorocyclisation. The authors proposed a mechanism (Scheme 4) for this reaction that involved

• reagent, 1-fluoro-3,3-dimethylbenziodoxole (12), was reported in 2015 by Szabó (Scheme 6) [31]. With catalytic Zn(BF4)2, 1-fluoro-3,3- dimethylbenziodoxole mediated the formation of fluorinated piperidines 6 and hexanamines 7 in high yields. A range of unsaturated amines with substituents on both carbons

• system was used due to concerns with the long-term stability of iodosylbenzene and unwanted reactions of BF3·Et2O with other reagents. In addition, a catalytic system was reported that employed 20 mol % iodotoluene with 1 equivalent of m-CPBA as terminal oxidant. The authors proposed that

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

• , photocatalysts, and electrocatalysts are presented here. The effect of macrocyclic structural modifications such as their functionalization with different substituents, distortion from planarity, conformational flexibility and rigidity towards catalytic activity are presented, highlighting the potential of these

• other binding sites required for substrate binding and/or promotion of the catalytic activity. Past studies have shown that modifying the porphyrin core with urea functionalities and amino acid substituents leads to the formation of ureaporphyrins, which significantly enhance sugar binding in non-polar

• , and calixarenes has been extensively studied using both enzyme mimics and non-biomimetic systems, due to the presence of an internal cavity (binding sites) and nearby functional groups (catalytic sites) [27][28][29]. Tetrapyrrolic macrocycles contain an internal cavity with multiple inner –N/NH groups

Synthesis of the 1,5-disubstituted tetrazole-methanesulfonylindole hybrid system via high-order multicomponent reaction

• Cesia M. Aguilar-Morales,
• América A. Frías-López,
• Nadia V. Emilio-Velázquez,
• Alejandro Islas-Jácome,
• Angelica Judith Granados-López,
• Jorge Gustavo Araujo-Huitrado,
• Yamilé López-Hernández,
• Hiram Hernández-López,
• Luis Chacón-García,
• Jesús Adrián López and
• Carlos J. Cortés-García

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3077–3084, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.256

• of the 1,5-disubstituted tetrazole-alkyne intermediates was unnecessary; we previously reported this heterocyclic system [24][25][26]. The heteroannulation reaction was then investigated under the most common conditions, utilizing a catalytic system comprising PdCl2(PPh3)2, Et3N and CuI [23][28

• to obtain the 1,5-disubstituted tetrazole-alkyne 19 is well-documented and hence, it is not herein described in detail [1][26][31]. Thus, based on Pal and co-workers’ proposal [32][33], the second process involves two catalytic cycles: 1) a Sonogashira coupling, and 2) a 5-endo-dig cyclization. The

• first catalytic cycle begins with the coupling of 1,5-disubstituted tetrazole-alkyne 19 and methanesulfonyl-2-iodoaniline 17 forming the intermediate 23. Following a reductive elimination, the Sonogashira-like product 24 is produced, which then progresses into the second catalytic cycle. In this cycle

Enantioselective regiospecific addition of propargyltrichlorosilane to aldehydes catalyzed by biisoquinoline N,N’-dioxide

• Noble Brako,
• Sreerag Moorkkannur Narayanan,
• Amber Burns,
• Layla Auter,
• Valentino Cesiliano,
• Rajeev Prabhakar and
• Norito Takenaka

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3069–3076, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.255

• , University of Miami, 1301 Memorial Drive, Coral Gables, Florida 33146-0431, USA 10.3762/bjoc.20.255 Abstract Distilled propargyltrichlorosilane with >99% isomeric purity was prepared for the first time, and its asymmetric catalytic regiospecific addition reaction to aldehydes was developed through a

• . Accordingly, the development of efficient access to optically active chiral α-allenic alcohols continues to be of significant interest in organic chemistry [11][12][13]. The asymmetric catalytic addition of allenylation reagents to aldehydes provides direct access to chiral α-allenic alcohols in an

• toward electrophiles [14][15][16][17][18][19]. Consequently, all reported asymmetric catalytic aldehyde allenylation methods are currently limited to metal/metalloid reagents bearing R2 substituents [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34], except for the methods with

Chemical structure metagenomics of microbial natural products: surveying nonribosomal peptides and beyond

• Thomas Ma and
• John Chu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 3050–3060, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.253

• offloading step always entails the same chemical reaction, wherein nucleophilic attack is promoted by the catalytic triad of a TE via general base catalysis. This is likely why traditional mechanistic studies that focused on the enzyme active site failed to work out how TEs control NRP topology. A priori

Advances in radical peroxidation with hydroperoxides

• Oleg V. Bityukov,
• Pavel Yu. Serdyuchenko,
• Andrey S. Kirillov,
• Gennady I. Nikishin,
• Vera A. Vil’ and
• Alexander O. Terent’ev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2959–3006, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.249

• recombination of IV with tert-butylperoxy radical provides the target product 22 (step J). The peroxidation of 2-oxoindoles 23, barbituric acids 25, and 4-hydroxycoumarins 27 by TBHP and α-cumyl hydroperoxide was carried out with the application of catalytic systems based on Co(II) [49], Mn(III) [50], and Fe(II

• atom from substrate 53 to form the C-centered radical B. Copper(II) then oxidizes TBHP to form the tert-butylperoxy radical C and copper(I), closing the catalytic copper cycle. tert-Butylperoxy radical C recombines with radical B to yield the product 54. The reaction of a mono-substituted nitrile

• excited state [*IrIII(ppy)3] is likely to initiate a plausible catalytic cycle. Then TBHP is reduced by [*IrIII(ppy)3] through SET, which results in the generation of the tert-butoxy radical. Subsequently, the tert-butoxy radical abstracts a hydrogen atom from substrate 68 to give radical A

gem-Difluorovinyl and trifluorovinyl Michael acceptors in the synthesis of α,β-unsaturated fluorinated and nonfluorinated amides

• Monika Bilska-Markowska,
• Marcin Kaźmierczak,
• Wojciech Jankowski and
• Marcin Hoffmann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2946–2953, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.247

• blocks [26]. Despite the known instability of trifluoromethylated carbanions [27], their catalytic application has yielded valuable products [28][29][30]. gem-Difluoroalkenes and trifluoroalkenes are excellent acceptors in the Michael addition reactions. There are also known examples of the use of gem

4,6-Diaryl-5,5-difluoro-1,3-dioxanes as chiral dopants for liquid crystal compositions

• Maurice Médebielle,
• Peer Kirsch,
• Jérémy Merad,
• Carolina von Essen,
• Clemens Kühn and
• Andreas Ruhl

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2940–2945, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.246

• still remain elusive and are not well understood [29]. Recently we have become interested in the preparation of racemic [30] anti- and highly enantioenriched 2,2-difluoro-1,3-diols [30][31][32] through an acylative double catalytic kinetic resolution (DoCKR) process [33]. While the 1,3-diol motif is

Recent advances in transition-metal-free arylation reactions involving hypervalent iodine salts

• Ritu Mamgain,
• Kokila Sakthivel and
• Fateh V. Singh

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2891–2920, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.243

• easily recycled just by washing it with ethanol, retaining its catalytic activity for arylation up to three cycles without any compromise. Thus, this procedure could be considered economic as well as environment-friendly. In 2019, Kalek and co-workers reported the regioselective C–H arylation of 2

Synthesis and antimycotic activity of new derivatives of imidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidines

• Dmitriy Yu. Vandyshev,
• Daria A. Mangusheva,
• Khidmet S. Shikhaliev,
• Kirill A. Scherbakov,
• Oleg N. Burov,
• Alexander D. Zagrebaev,
• Tatiana N. Khmelevskaya,
• Alexey S. Trenin and
• Fedor I. Zubkov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2806–2817, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.236

• of the catalytic activity of CYP51. A number of previous studies confirmed the efficacy of azole compounds and their derivatives against a variety of strains and clinical isolates of the genus Candida. Nevertheless, the increased use of azole antifungals for the therapy of both mucosal and systemic

Mechanochemical difluoromethylations of ketones

• Jinbo Ke,
• Pit van Bonn and
• Carsten Bolm

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2799–2805, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.235

• -depleting sulfur dioxide as side products [46][47]. Later, Ichikawa and co-workers established the release of difluorocarbene from TFDA with catalytic amounts of an N-heterocyclic carbene and a base (Scheme 1C) [29][48][49]. In these reactions, difluoromethyl enol ethers were obtained, which were

Copper-catalyzed yne-allylic substitutions: concept and recent developments

• Shuang Yang and
• Xinqiang Fang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2739–2775, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.232

• 350100, China 10.3762/bjoc.20.232 Abstract The catalytic (asymmetric) allylation and propargylation have been established as powerful strategies allowing access to enantioenriched α-chiral alkenes and alkynes. In this context, combining allylic and propargylic substitutions offers new opportunities to

• catalytic center; finally, the selectivity affording E-enyne and Z-enyne product is also an issue to be addressed, and possible side reactions need to be suppressed (Scheme 2). In this review, we summarize the recent development of copper-catalyzed yne-allylic substitutions. It is worth noting that when we

• ). Further control experiments and DFT calculations show that during the catalytic process, tertiary amine directly participates as a nucleophilic reagent to give the ammonium salt, which then releases dimethylaminium to provide the final product (Scheme 12). Chiral allylic sulfone compounds can be easily

5th International Symposium on Synthesis and Catalysis (ISySyCat2023)

• Anthony J. Burke and
• Elisabete P. Carreiro

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2704–2707, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.227

• intramolecular aminocarbonylation using Mo(CO)6. Both catalytic approaches successfully produced the desired DBDAPs. As previously mentioned, organic synthesis is a crucial tool for preparing complex molecules of high value to industry. Frackenpohl et al. [13] designed and synthesized a new library of 2,3

• carbene (NHC) framework from polysubstituted aminoimidazo[5,1-b]oxazol-6-ium salts, which demonstrated strong catalytic activity in gold-catalyzed alkyne hydration and arylative cyclization reactions [14]. The synthesis of this new carbene involved the use of a novel nitrenoid reagent that was

• time-consuming, complex, and expensive. Consequently, it is of utmost interest to immobilize them for reuse but without affecting their catalytic activity. The main factors discussed were the type of support, immobilization, and interaction between the support and the organocatalyst. The particular

Computational design for enantioselective CO₂ capture: asymmetric frustrated Lewis pairs in epoxide transformations

• Maxime Ferrer,
• Iñigo Iribarren,
• Tim Renningholtz,
• Ibon Alkorta and
• Cristina Trujillo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2668–2681, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.224

• strategically modifying LB substituents to induce asymmetry, a stereoselective catalytic scaffold was developed, favouring one enantiomer from both epoxide enantiomers. This work advances the in silico design of FLPs, highlighting their potential as asymmetric CCU catalysts with implications for optimising

• alkenes [10][11], they have since found applications in catalysis [12][13]. Among the first catalytic uses of FLPs were the hydrogenation of unsaturated compounds [12][14] and the reduction of CO2 using H2 as a reductant [7][15][16][17]. FLPs have become an attractive avenue for the reduction of CO2

• catalysts located at the top. The top of the volcano plot corresponds to the scenario where the catalyst exhibits high catalytic activity, as it achieves an optimal balance in binding to the reactants, neither too strongly nor too weakly (Figure 1A, purple points). The catalysts with binding energies lower

The scent gland composition of the Mangshan pit viper, Protobothrops mangshanensis

• Jonas Holste,
• Paul Weldon,
• Donald Boyer and
• Stefan Schulz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2644–2654, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.222

• concentrated under a stream of N2. Hydrogenation: The solvent of the natural extract (100 µL) was removed with a stream of N2 and taken up in pentane (100 µL) and a catalytic amount of Pd/C was added. The reaction was then stirred for 1 h under a H2 atmosphere. The catalyst was filtered and rinsed with pentane

• , catalytic amounts of 4-(dimethylamino)pyridine (DMAP) and freshly distilled 3-pyridinemethanol (1 drop) were added. The reaction mixture was heated to 60 °C for 1 h and filtered. The filtrate was washed three times with H2O, the organic phases were dried over sodium sulfate and filtered before GC–MS