Given its ready availability, low price and environmentally friendly character, iron is an attractive and often advantageous alternative to other transition metals in the field of catalysis. This tutorial review summarises recent progress in the development of novel and practical iron-catalysed reactions with a particular focus on those which provide access to new carbon–heteroatom and heteroatom–heteroatom linkages. It shall be of interest for both the academic as well as the industrial community.

Non‐covalent molecular interactions on the basis of halogen and chalcogen bonding represent a promising, powerful catalytic activation mode. However, these “unusual” non‐covalent interactions are typically employed in the solid state and scarcely exploited in catalysis. In recent years, an increased interest in halogen and chalcogen bonding has been awaken, as they provide profound characteristics that make them an appealing alternative to the well‐explored hydrogen bonding. Being particularly relevant in the binding of “soft” substrates, the similar strength to hydrogen bonding interactions and its higher directionality allows for solution‐phase applications with halogen and chalcogen bonding as the key interaction. In this mini‐review, the special features, state‐of‐the‐art and key examples of these so‐called σ‐hole interactions in the field of organocatalysis are presented.

Asymmetric organocatalysis has experienced a long and spectacular way since the early reports over a century ago by von Liebig, Knoevenagel and Bredig, showing that small (chiral) organic molecules can catalyze (asymmetric) reactions. This was followed by impressive first highly enantioselective reports in the second half of the last century, until the hype initiated in 2000 by the milestone publications of MacMillan and List, which finally culminated in the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This short Perspective aims at providing a brief introduction to the field by first looking on the historical development and the more classical methods and concepts, followed by discussing selected advanced recent examples that opened new directions and diversity within this still growing field.