Copper-catalyzed oxidative molecular transformation of amidines for synthesis of nitrogen heterocycles

Copper (Cu) species show versatile chemical reactivity enabling functionalization of rather simple molecules in a variety of the reaction modes. The research on development of Cu-catalyzed oxidative molecular transformation has now a momentum in the community of synthetic organic chemistry, resulting in discovery of many kinds of molecular transformations for synthesis of complex molecules of medicinal and materials importance. To make catalytic turnover in Cu-catalyzed oxidative processes, use of stoichiometric oxidants is indispensable. These stoichiometric oxidants could uniquely change the reaction mechanism in the catalytic cycle to result in different outcomes (i.e., structure of the products and selectivity) from the same kinds of starting materials. This digest focuses on the role of the stoichiometric oxidants in several copper catalyzed oxidative molecular transformations of amidine derivatives (reported since 2008) primarily for the synthesis of nitrogen heterocycles.