The disclosure relates to benzo[ghi]perylene imide photoredox catalysts (PC) and methods for the Birch reductions of aromatic substrates, such as benzene, benzeneoid, and heteroaromatic compounds, using light as the driving force. Certain aspects of the disclosure encompass methods for reduction of aromatic substrates. The method comprises contacting an aromatic substrate with a sacrificial electron donor in the presence of a photoredox catalyst in a solvent, thereby forming a reaction mixture; exposing the reaction mixture to visible or UV light under reaction condition sufficient to reduce the aromatic substrate compound.

The present invention relates to a composition, comprising a palladium compound which is a palladium salt or a palladium complex or a mixture thereof, and a polycyclic compound of Formula (I), (II) or (III):

The invention generally relates to methods of making substituted arenes via direct C—H, C—O, C—S, or C—N bond conversion and methods of synthesizing isotopically-labeled substituted arenes via direct carbon-halogen bond conversion. The invention also relates to anaerobic catalyst systems comprising an acridinium photocatalyst and a nucleophile selected from a halide, a cyanide, and an isotopically-labeled amine. This abstract is intended as a scanning tool for purposes of searching in the particular art and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention.

The present invention discloses a method for preparing aldehydes or ketones via aerobic oxidation of alcohols with the copper salts and nitroxide radicals as catalysts. Both oxygen and air could be used as oxidants, after 4 to 48 hours of reaction in an organic solvent at room temperature, the alcohols are efficiently oxidized to the corresponding aldehydes or ketones. The present invention has the following advantages: easy to operate, refraining from using chlorides which are corrosive to equipment, readily available raw materials and reagents, mils reaction conditions, the broad substrate scope, good functional group tolerance, convenient purification, environmentally friendly and no pollution. Thus, the method is suitable for industrial production.

The present invention relates to a method for preparing a β-lactam derivative, wherein a substituted N-quinoline-3-butenamide derivative is used as a substrate to react with a toluene derivative or a heterocyclic derivative at 90-150° C. in the presence of DTBP and a copper salt catalyst, to prepare a β-lactam derivative. According to the method of the present invention, a variety of β-lactam derivatives can be obtained with a high yield. The reaction of the present invention has mild reaction conditions, and simple reaction operation and post-treatment process, and is suitable for large-scale production.

The subject invention pertains to a method of halogenating phenols, yielding a range of halogenated phenols with enantiomeric ratio of up to 99.5:0.5. In certain embodiments, the subject invention pertains to a method of asymmetric halogenation of bisphenol, yielding a range of chiral bisphenol ligands. The novel chiral bisphenols are potent privileged catalyst cores that can be applied to the preparation of ligands for various catalytic asymmetric reactions. The catalyst library can easily be accessed because late-stage modification of the scaffold can readily be executed through cross-coupling of the halogen handles on the bisphenols.

The present invention relates to a process for coupling a heterocyclic aromatic ring AR1 and a carbocyclic or heterocyclic aromatic ring AR2 to each other by a light-assisted decarboxylative carbon-carbon cross-coupling reaction, wherein a reaction medium is provided by mixing a first reactant, a second reactant and a catalyst composition, wherein the catalyst composition comprises (i) a palladium compound which is a palladium salt or a palladium complex or a mixture thereof, and (ii) a polycyclic compound of Formula (I), (II) or (III):

##STR00001## the reaction medium is irradiated by an external light source, thereby coupling the heterocyclic aromatic ring AR1 of the first reactant to the aromatic ring AR2 of the second reactant by a decarboxylative carbon-carbon cross-coupling reaction.

The invention relates to a commercially viable, cost effective and energy efficient process for the preparation of 2-(1H-Imidazol-4-yl)ethanamine or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof in high purity and yield via application of continuous flow technology.

A process for preparing a ketone or carboxylic acid by catalytic oxidation of a secondary or primary alcohol comprises adding the secondary or primary alcohol as a raw material and N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI) combined with phthalocyanine, serving as a catalytic system, into an amount of an organic solvent into which oxygen gas is then introduced, to proceed with an oxidation reaction to give the ketone or carboxylic acid. The oxygen gas is employed as the source of an oxidant. The oxidation reaction may be carried out under normal pressure at 60 to 120 C. for 9 to 36 hours. The process can produce a high yield of ketone or carboxylic acid. Compared with conventional technology, the process has several advantages, such as the green oxidant, the cheap catalyst which can also be easily prepared and separated, and mild reaction conditions, and it is also an environmentally friendly process for alcohol oxidation.

A liquid phase selective oxidation process is described. The process involves the partial oxidation of alkanes to partially oxidized products. A lower alkane, a solvent, and a soluble metal catalyst are contacted in the presence of an oxidizing agent in a reaction zone under partial oxidation conditions to produce the partially oxidized products. The partially oxidized products include one or more of lower alkyl alcohols, lower alkyl ketones, and lower alkyl acetates. The soluble metal catalyst is a soluble metal salt of cobalt, manganese, chromium, titanium, copper, nickel, vanadium, iron, molybdenum, tin, cerium, zirconium, or combinations thereof, and the promoter comprises a bromine source, an imide source, or combinations thereof.