An ortho-naphthoquinone-catalyzed oxidative deamination reaction has been developed where the molecular oxygen and water serve as the sole oxidant and nucleophile. The current aerobic deamination reaction proceeds via the ketimine formation between ortho-naphthoquinones and amines followed by the prototropic rearrangement and hydrolysis by water, representing a biomimetic oxidative deamination of amine species in the human body by the liver and kidneys. The compatibility of ortho-naphthoquinone organocatalysts with molecular oxygen and water opens up a new biomimetic catalyst system that can function as versatile deaminases for a variety of amine-containing molecules such as amino acids and DNA nuclear bases.

A rhodium-catalyzed decarbonylative aerobic oxidation of cyclic α-diketones has been developed for the first time, where the regioselective formations of α-pyrones and isocoumarins have been achieved. The current decarbonylative aerobic oxidation pathway proceeds via the C-C bond cleavage followed by a C-O bond formation, representing a biomimetic oxidation approach to unsaturated six-membered cyclic lactones. The unique ability of rhodium catalysts to induce the decarbonylative aerobic oxidation opens up a new synthetic toolbox that utilizes the "regioselective single carbon" extrusion strategy.

The dehydrogenative coupling of amines by copper catalysts was investigated in the presence of molecular oxygen. By modulating the aerobic oxidation pathways of Cu(OAc)2 catalyst in different reaction solvents, the selective formations of homo‐coupled imines, cross‐coupled imines, and nitriles have been achieved from amine derivatives. The discovery of the multiple aerobic oxidation pathways of Cu(OAc)2 signifies the on demand reactivity control of the catalytically active copper species by the reaction solvents. Given that the aerobic oxidation protocols are of significant interest to the advancement of green chemical processes, the copper‐catalyzed aerobic oxidation reactions will be useful for a wide range of functional group transformations.

An unprecedented intermolecular [2 + 2 + 1] cycloaddition strategy between two aryl aldehydes and a nitrile, wherein one of the aryl aldehydes serves as a carbanion (or equivalent) in the presence of TMSOTf for obtaining oxazole framework is presented.

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