Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

SYNTHETIC METHODOLOGY

Radical ring formation

N-heterocycles are valuable motifs in pharmaceuticals and materials, but divergent synthetic strategies are lacking. Now, bifunctional sulfilimines have been shown to form nitrogen-centred radicals under photocatalytic conditions, and subsequent coupling with olefins enables the synthesis of diverse N-heterocycles.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Discovery of a bifunctional reagent for N-heterocycle synthesis.

References

  1. Richter, M. F. et al. Nature 545, 299–304 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Vitaku, E., Smith, D. T. & Njardarson, J. T. J. Med. Chem. 57, 10257–10274 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Lovering, F., Bikker, J. & Humblet, C. J. Med. Chem. 52, 6752–6756 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Cheng, Q., Bai, Z., Tewari, S. & Ritter, T. Nat. Chem. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-022-00997-y (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Berger, F. & Ritter, T. Synlett 33, 339–345 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Vo, C.-V. T., Mikutis, G. & Bode, J. W. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 52, 1705–1708 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Yar, M., McGarringle, E. M. & Aggarwal, V. K. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 47, 3784–3786 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Holst, D. E., Wang, D. J., Kim, M., Guzei, I. A. & Wickens, Z. K. Nature 596, 74–79 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wei Li.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Baskaran, P., Li, W. Radical ring formation. Nat. Chem. 14, 850–852 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-022-01006-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-022-01006-y

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing