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A strategy of chemoselective reduction of α, β-unsaturated ketones was developed in our group. H3N·BH3 would prefer to coordinate with CO bond, forming six-membered ring, and ketones were hydrogenated via concerted double-hydrogen-transfer process.

In the presence of K2S2O8 and HOAc, 3-(2-azidoaryl) substituted propargyl alcohols can go through chemoselective oxidative radical cyclizations to give a pool of anthranils based on Meyer-Schuster rearrangement. It's proposed that the cyclizations were triggered exclusively by the direct attack of oxygen radicals on the azides. The weak N-O bonds in anthranils could be easily cleaved in the presence of transition metal catalysts and went through aminations with 2-oxo-2-phenylacetic acid and iodobenzene.