One-electron reduction is commonly used in organic chemistry for the formation of radicals by the stepwise transfer of one or two electrons from a donor to an organic substrate. Besides metallic reagents, single-electron reducers based on neutral organic molecules have emerged as an attractive novel source of reducing electrons. The past 20 years have seen the blossoming of a particular class of organic reducing agents, the electron-rich olefins, and their application in organic synthesis. This Review gives an overview of the different types of organic donors and their specific characteristics in organic transformations.

We report the synthesis of acyl azolium salts stemming from thiazolylidenes C NS , triazolylidenes C TN, mesoionic carbenes C MIC and the generation of their corresponding radicals and enolates, covering about 60 Breslow-type derivatives. This study highlights the role of additives in the redox behavior of these compounds and unveils several critical misconceptions about radical transformations of aldehyde derivatives under N-heterocyclic carbene catalysis. In particular, the reducing ability of enolates has been dramatically underestimated in the case of biomimetic C NS . In contrast with previous electrochemical studies, we show that these catalytic intermediates can transfer electrons to iodobenzene within minutes at room temperature. Enols derived from C MIC are not the previously claimed super electron donors, although enolate derivatives of C NS and C MIC are powerful reducing agents.

The performance of 16-electron ruthenium complexes with the general formula Cp*Ru(L)X (in which L = phosphine or N-heterocyclic carbene ligand; X = Cl or OCH 2 CF 3 ) was explored in azide−alkyne cycloaddition reactions that afford the 1,2,3-triazole products. The scope of the Cp*Ru(P

Acyclic nucleoside phosphonates (ANPs) are at the cornerstone of DNA virus and retrovirus therapies. They reach their target, the viral DNA polymerase, after two phosphorylation steps catalyzed by cellular kinases. New pyrimidine ANPs have been synthesized with unsaturated acyclic side chains (prop-2-enyl-, but-2-enyl-, pent-2-enyl-) and different substituents at the C5 position of the uracil nucleobase. Several derivatives in the but-2-enyl- series 9d and 9e, with (E) but not with (Z) configuration, were efficient substrates for human thymidine monophosphate (TMP) kinase, but not for uridine monophosphate-cytosine monophosphate (UMP-CMP) kinase, which is in contrast to cidofovir. Human TMP kinase was successfully crystallized in a complex with phosphorylated (E)-thymidine-but-2-enyl phosphonate 9e and ADP. The bis-pivaloyloxymethyl (POM) esters of (E)-9d and (E)-9e were synthesized and shown to exert activity against herpes virus in vitro (IC(50) = 3 μM) and against varicella zoster virus in vitro (IC(50) = 0.19 μM), in contrast to the corresponding inactive (Z) derivatives. Thus, their antiviral activity correlates with their ability to act as thymidylate kinase substrates.