It was proved that a judicious choice of counteranion played a prominent role in Cu(II) catalysis for enantioselective boron conjugate additions in water; the use of Cu(OH)2 renders heterogeneous catalysis, whereas Cu(OAc)2 renders homogeneous catalysis; cyclic dienones underwent a remarkable switch of regioselectivity between 1,4- and 1,6-modes of the additions through these catalyses.

A major limitation of on-water catalysis has been the need for liquid reactants to enable emulsification. We demonstrate that ionic liquids are compatible with on-water catalysis, enabling on-water catalysed reactions for otherwise unreactive solid-solid systems. The unique solvation properties of ionic liquids dramatically expands the scope of on-water catalysis.

Various types of aldehydes undergo crossed-Aldol condensation with ketones in the presence of melamine trisulfonic acid (MTSA) under solvent-free conditions. The reported method is mild, efficient and has the advantages such as using heterogeneous catalysis, short reaction times, high yields of the products and the recyclability of the catalyst.

Regioselective difunctionalization of alkenes has attracted significant attention from synthetic chemists and has the advantage of introducing diverse functional groups into vicinal carbons of common alkene moieties in a single operation. Herein, we report an unprecedented intermolecular atom transfer thiosulfonylation reaction of alkenes by combining gold catalysis and visible-light photoredox...