Light opens a new window for N-heterocyclic carbene catalysis.

N-Heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) are efficient Lewis basic catalysts for the umpolung of various polarized unsaturated compounds usually including aldehydes, imines, acyl chlorides and activated esters. NHC catalysis involving electron pair transfer steps has been extensively studied; however, NHC catalysis through single-electron transfer (SET) processes, despite having the potential to achieve chemical transformations of inert chemical bonds and using green reagents, has long been a challenging task in organic synthesis. In parallel, visible-light-induced photocatalysis and photoexcitation have been established as powerful tools to facilitate sustainable organic synthesis, as they enable the generation of various reactive radical intermediates under extremely mild conditions. Recently, a number of elegant visible-light-induced, NHC-catalyzed transformations were developed for accessing valuable organic compounds. As a result, this minireview will highlight the recent advances in this field.

Sterically and electronically tunable and bifunctional organocatalysts: design and application in asymmetric aldol reaction of cyclic ketones with aldehydes.

Sterically and electronically tunable and bifunctional organocatalysts have been developed and evaluated in the direct aldol reaction of heterocyclic ketones. Catalysts with different substituents showed variable catalytic efficiency for analogous substrates, indicating the importance of fine-tuning the strength of the hydrogen bonding in the two NH groups. The reactions all proceeded in good to high yield and with excellent enantioselectivities ranging from 90% to >99% ee. In most cases, high diastereoselectivities ranging from 96/4 to 99/1 were obtained for the anti aldol adduct.