Nitrogen containing compounds are of great importance because of their interesting and diverse biological activities. The construction of the C–N bond is of significant importance as it opens avenues for the introduction of nitrogen in organic molecules. Despite significant advancements in this field, the construction of the C–N bond is still a major challenge for organic chemists, due to the involvement of harsh reaction conditions or the use of expensive catalysts in many cases. Thus, it is a challenge to develop alternative, milder and cheaper methodologies for the construction of C–N bonds. Herein, we have selected some prime literature reports that may serve this purpose.

In recent years, the transition-metal catalyzed three-component coupling of an aldehyde, an alkyne and an amine, commonly called A³-coupling, has been established as a convenient and general approach towards propargylamines. Furthermore, the A³-coupling has found a broad application as a key step in the construction of various nitrogen-containing heterocycles, biologically active compounds and natural products. Several interesting modifications of the A³-coupling as well as different tandem reactions involving A³-coupling have been developed. This tutorial review aims to highlight the current achievements in the field of A³-couplings and related transformations.

This tutorial review provides a good introduction to spirocyclization reactions of indole derivatives and highlights the recent advances in the construction of spiroindolines and spiroindoles.

Transition metal-catalyzed C–C bond formations have been well studied over the last four decades. An improved mechanistic understanding of such reactions has helped chemists to develop further improvements, modifications and even new reactions. In the area of transition metal-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions the C–S bond cleaving reactions have attracted a lot of attention in the last decade as they provide a good alternative to the use of organo-halide reagents in traditional cross-coupling reactions. The availability of a wide range of organo-sulfur species provides the opportunity for developing different transformations for the synthesis of interesting organic compounds. This tutorial review focuses on recent examples of the transition metal-catalyzed C–C bond forming reactions using organo-sulfur species.

First described almost a decade ago, “click” reactions such as the Cu(I)-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) are widely used today in organic and medicinal chemistry, in the polymer and material science field, and in chemical biology. While most click reactions can be performed at room temperature there are instances where some form of process intensification is required. In this tutorial review, aimed at the synthetic chemistry community, examples of click chemistry carried out under non-classical reaction conditions, such as for example applying microwave heating or continuous flow processing will be highlighted.