About this Research Topic

Background

Nitroalkanes and nitroalkenes have long played important roles as convenient and readily available intermediates in organic chemistry, including total synthesis of natural products, pharmaceutical ingredients, and high-energy materials. The diverse reactivity of nitro compounds in C,C- and C,X-bond forming reactions, together with the ease of transformation of the nitro-group into other functional groups, makes nitro compounds ideal reagents for organic chemists.

The growth of interest in nitro compounds in recent years has been governed mainly by two factors. First, modern asymmetric strategies such as organocatalysis have demonstrated excellent applicability to nitro compounds. As such, the search for new catalytic asymmetric transformations of nitroalkanes and nitroalkenes has now become a rapidly developing field. Second, the reduction of enantiomerically and diastereomerically rich nitro-derivatives obtained by these means provides expedient access to various bioactive amines and their derivatives, which are presently in high demand by the pharmaceutical industry.

Overall, medicinal chemistry is the main area of practical application of nitro compounds. Nitroalkanes and nitroalkenes are considered indispensable building blocks for the concise synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant molecules in both academia and the industry. This Research Topic will thus form a collection of articles on this topic in the hopes that it will stimulate synthetic and medicinal chemists to find further useful applications of nitro compounds and their derivatives as valuable intermediates in pharmacy-oriented organic synthesis.

We welcome the submission of original research, reviews, and mini review articles with a focus on:

- The synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant molecules from nitro compounds and related derivatives

- Novel synthetic methods utilizing nitroalkanes and nitroalkenes, including organocatalysis

- New methods for the synthesis of nitro compounds

Keywords: nitroalkanes, nitroalkenes, stereoselective synthesis, catalysis, pharmaceuticals

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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