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Vijay Nair, a prominent Indian organic chemist, passed away in 2024 at the age of 82. He made significant contributions to organic synthesis and mentored many chemists during his career. Nair's work focused on areas such as o-quinones, multicomponent reactions, and the use of cerium(IV) ammonium nitrate as an oxidant. His research and leadership at the National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology in Trivandrum transformed the landscape of organic chemistry in India. [Extracted from the article]

The classic chemical Mitsunobu reaction suffers from the need of excess alcohol activation reagents and the generation of significant by‐products. Efforts to overcome these limitations have resulted in numerous creative solutions, but the substrate scope of these catalytic processes remains limited. Here we report an electrochemical Mitsunobu‐type reaction, which features azo‐free alcohol activation and broad substrate scope. This user‐friendly technology allows a vast collection of heterocycles as the nucleophile, which can couple with a series of chiral cyclic and acyclic alcohols in moderate to high yields and excellent ee's. This practical reaction is scalable, chemoselective, uses simple Electrasyn setup with inexpensive electrodes and requires no precaution to exclude air and moisture. The synthetic utility is further demonstrated on the structural modification of diverse bioactive natural products and pharmaceutical derivatives and its straightforward application in a multiple‐step synthesis of a drug candidate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A catalytic enantioselective β‐O‐elimination reaction is reported in the form of a zirconium‐catalyzed asymmetric opening of meso‐ketene acetals. Furthermore, a regiodivergent β‐O‐elimination is demonstrated. The reaction proceeds under mild conditions, at low catalyst loadings, and produces chiral monoprotected cis‐1,2‐diols in good yield and enantiomeric excess. The combination with a Mitsunobu reaction or a one‐pot hydroboration/Suzuki reaction sequence then gives access to additional diol and aminoalcohol building blocks. A stereochemical analysis supported by DFT calculations reveals that a high selectivity in the hydrozirconation step is also important for achieving high enantioselectivity, although it does not constitute the asymmetric step. This insight is crucial for the future development of related asymmetric β‐elimination reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

α‐Allenol is a versatile synthon in organic synthesis. The catalytic asymmetric synthesis of α‐allenols from readily available starting materials remains a prominent challenge, especially when simultaneous control over axial and central chirality is required. Herein, we describe the Cr‐catalyzed enantioconvergent allenylation of aldehydes with racemic propargyl halides to rapidly access a wide range of chiral α‐allenols with adjacent axial and central chiralities. This method features excellent regio‐, diastereo‐ and enantioselectivity control with broad substrate scope, and provides facile access to all four stereoisomers when allied with a Mitsunobu reaction. Preliminary mechanistic studies support radical‐based reaction pathways. The synthetic utility is demonstrated by the application in late‐stage functionalization and the formal total synthesis of (+)‐varitriol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphine‐mediated deoxygenative nucleophilic substitutions, such as the Mitsunobu reaction, are of great importance in organic synthesis. However, the conventional protocols require stoichiometric oxidants to trigger the formation of the oxyphosphonium intermediates for the subsequent nucleophilic additions. Through dual catalysis of photoredox and cobaloxime, we realized a radical strategy for the catalytic formation of acyloxyphosphonium ions that enables direct amidation. The deoxygenative protocol exhibits a broad scope and has been used in the late‐stage amidation of drug molecules. In addition to batch reactions, a continuous‐flow reactor was developed, enabling rapid peptide synthesis on gram scale. The successful assembly of a tetrapeptide on the solid support further demonstrated the versatility of this photocatalytic system. Moreover, experimental and computational studies are consistent with the hypothesis of acyloxyphosphonium ions being formed as the key intermediates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatially resolved functionalization of 2D materials is highly demanded but very challenging to achieve. The chemical patterning is typically tackled by preventing contact between the reagent and material, which brings various accompanying challenges. Photochemical transformation on the other hand inherently provides remote high spatiotemporal resolution using the cleanest reagent—a photon. Herein, we combine two competing reactions on a graphene substrate to create functionalization patterns on a micrometer scale via the Mitsunobu reaction. The mild reaction conditions allow introduction of covalently dynamic linkages, which can serve as reversible labels for surface‐ or graphene‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy characterization of the patterns prepared. The proposed methodology thus provides a pathway for local introduction of arbitrary functional groups on graphene. Mapping graphene: Patterns of chemical functional groups are grafted onto graphene via photomodulated Mitsunobu reaction. Enhanced Raman spectroscopy employing covalently dynamic linkages provide easy and direct mapping of the structures prepared. Arbitrary patterns with micrometer resolution can be prepared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stereospecific substitution of non‐derivatized and non‐allylic enantioenriched alcohols with only water as a by‐product would enable the use of readily available alcohols as substrates for green and sustainable transformations. However, the poor leaving group ability of the OH group has hampered the development of such a process. Denton and co‐workers recently described the use of (2‐hydroxybenzyl)diphenylphosphine oxide as a catalyst of a redox‐neutral and zero‐waste‐generating Mitsunobu reaction. This innovative process constitutes the first intermolecular stereospecific substitution of non‐allylic alcohols, and might find industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mitsunobu reaction is renowned for its mild reaction conditions and broad substrate tolerance, but has limited utility in process chemistry and industrial applications due to poor atom economy and the generation of stoichiometric phosphine oxide and hydrazine by-products that complicate purification. A catalytic Mitsunobu reaction using innocuous reagents to recycle these by-products would overcome both of these shortcomings. Herein we report a protocol that is catalytic in phosphine (1-phenylphospholane) employing phenylsilane to recycle the catalyst. Integration of this phosphine catalytic cycle with Taniguchi's azocarboxylate catalytic system provided the first fully catalytic Mitsunobu reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new strategy for highly concise, convergent, and enantioselective access to polydeoxypropionates has been developed. ZACA-Pd-catalyzed vinylation was used to prepare smaller deoxypropionate fragments, and then two key sequential Cu-catalyzed stereocontrolled sp3-sp3 cross-coupling reactions allowed convergent assembly of smaller building blocks to build-up long polydeoxypropionate chains with excellent stereoselectivity. We employed this strategy for the synthesis of phthioceranic acid, a key constituent of the cell-wall lipid of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, in just 8 longest linear steps with full stereocontrol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An alkyl aryl ether bond formation reaction between phenols and primary and secondary alcohols with PhenoFluor has been developed. The reaction features a broad substrate scope and tolerates many functional groups, and substrates that are challenging for more conventional ether bond forming processes may be coupled. A preliminary mechanistic study indicates reactivity distinct from conventional ether bond formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A short synthesis of ent-hydromorphone has been achieved in twelve steps from β-bromoethylbenzene. The key transformations involved the enzymatic dihydroxylation of the arene to the corresponding cis-dihydrodiol, Mitsunobu coupling with the ring A fragment, oxidative dearomatization of the C3 phenol, and the subsequent [4+2] cycloaddition to form ring B of the morphinan. The synthesis was completed by intramolecular amination at C9. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to the article on the reactions of the Mitsunobu reagents with an iron catalyst and atmospheric oxygen is presented.

A correction to an article on chartelline c: stereoselective construction published in a previous issue of the journal is presented.