Saturated carbonyl compounds, such as aldehydes and esters, are basic building blocks for the synthesis of organic molecules and materials. Reactions with carbonyl compounds as substrates primarily occur at the carbonyl carbon atom (as an electrophilic center) or the a-carbon atom (as a prenucleophile). In organocatalysis, several powerful approaches have been developed for the asymmetric funct...

In an environmentally benign solventless system, alcohols are rapidly oxidized to carbonyl compounds using hexamethylenetetramine-bromine on wet alumina under microwave irradiation.

β-Cyclodextrin sulfuric acid as a green Lewis acid catalyst has been applied for the preparation of bis(indolyl)methanes, tris(indolyl)methanes and 3,3'-diindolyloxindole derivatives by the condensation of indoles with various carbonyl compounds in aqueous media with high to excellent yields.