A fast and efficient protocol which is associated with readily available starting materials, mild conditions, excellent yields, and a broad range of the products in synthetic chemistry, was established for synthesis of quinoxaline, benzoxazine, and benzothiazine derivatives in water under catalyst-free conditions.

A zinc-dependent acylase, D-aminoacylase from Escherichia. Coli, displays a promiscuous activity to catalyze the carbon–carbon bond formation reaction of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds to methyl vinyl ketone in organic media.

Designing a green, highly efficient and stereoselective catalytic system to generate valuable enantioenriched products is a long-standing goal in green chemistry. Here, we report a one-pot cascade combining photocatalysts with (R)- or (S)-selective ketoreductases for the decarboxylative carbonylation of carboxylic acids and the subsequent bioreduction to generate valuable chiral alcohols. Using this approach, various chiral alcohols with complementary (R)- or (S)-configurations were prepared with good yields (up to 93%) and excellent stereoselectivity (up to 99% ee). Such a photochemo-enzymatic one-pot whole-cell process combines the advantages of both photocatalysts and enzyme catalysts and provides a mild, green, metal-free and highly stereoselective alternative in asymmetric decarboxylative hydroxylation reactions.

An enzymatic method which combines D-aminoacylase catalyzed nitroaldol reaction and lipase PS-IM catalyzed acyl resolution reaction was constructed to obtain optically pure β-nitroalcohols in organic media under mild conditions. A series of β-nitroalcohols were synthesized and then resolved, with excellent ee values (>95%) and yields mostly, giving enantiomerically pure acetate and alcohol of the opposite configuration simultaneously.