Bromination is one of the most important transformations in organic synthesis and can be carried out using bromine and many other bromo compounds. Use of molecular bromine in organic synthesis is well-known. However, due to the hazardous nature of bromine, enormous growth has been witnessed in the past several decades for the development of solid bromine carriers. This review outlines the use of bromine and different bromo-organic compounds in organic synthesis. The applications of bromine, a total of 107 bromo-organic compounds, 11 other brominating agents, and a few natural bromine sources were incorporated. The scope of these reagents for various organic transformations such as bromination, cohalogenation, oxidation, cyclization, ring-opening reactions, substitution, rearrangement, hydrolysis, catalysis, etc. has been described briefly to highlight important aspects of the bromo-organic compounds in organic synthesis.

Synthesis of CuO nanoparticles using the peel of Musa balbisiana and its application in reduction of nitro aryl compounds are reported here. CuO nanoparticles were characterized by using XRD, XPS, PL, SEM and TEM techniques. In XRD analysis, significant peaks appeared at 18.3, 24.4, 33.6, 34.6, 35.2, 38.2 and 42.7 respectively. The BET surface area and total pore volume of CuO were found to be 7.479 m 2 g À1 and 0.1259 m 3 g À1 , respectively. The generated CuO nanoparticles exhibited interplanar lattice fringe spacings of 0.16 nm. SEM images indicate the formation of flower-like CuO architecture. The hierarchical CuO architecture is found to be made up of nanosheets which were self assembled to form flower-like nanostructures. The synthesized CuO nanoparticles show efficient catalytic activity in reduction of nitro aryl compounds to corresponding amino compounds with a high yield of conversion (74-96%). The reaction was carried out in a green solvent i.e. water. The catalyst was found to be active for several runs. It was further confirmed by several pieces of experimental evidence.

A fast and efficient method has been developed for generation of sulfonyl nitrene from N,N-dibromo-p-toluenesulfonamide (TsNBr(2)) in the presence of a base without any catalyst. This method was applied to produce aziridines from different kinds of olefins within a short time in high yields.

N,N-dibromo-p-toluenesulfonamide (TsNBr 2 ) has been found to be a new reagent for bromination of aromatic compounds. The reaction is extremely fast which goes into completion instantaneously at ambient temperature to produce exclusively the corresponding polybrominated product. This procedure is applicable to various phenols, anisole and anilines to give corresponding polybrominated compound as single product in excellent yield.

The green, eco-friendly synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles using the peel ofMusa balbisianaand their use as a nanocatalyst in the synthesis of chalcone derivatives is reported.