Most of the traditional organic fluorescent molecules have notorious aggregation-induced quenching (ACQ) effect, which limits their application in many fields. Therefore, how to achieve the transition from ACQ to aggregation-induced emission (AIE) while maintaining the functional properties of traditional conjugated molecules is of great significance. In recent years, many research groups have done a lot of breakthrough works in this field. According to the construction method and structural characteristics of AIE luminogen (AIEgen), the ACQ to AIE transformation strategy can be divided into two types. Based on the restriction of intramolecular motion (RIM) mechanism, the first one is to decorate ACQphore with typical AIEgen (e.g. tetraphenylethene unit). As the second one, some functional units (e.g. triphenylamine and cyanoethylene moiety) are introduced to realize the construction of AIE molecules from zero starting point as the RIM mechanism. In the latter, the construction of other AIEgen systems involving isomerism and excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) mechanisms has also been prominent recently. Thus, according to these classifications, the new progress on the construction strategy of ACQ-to-AIE transformation in the past five years is summarized from the four aspects of AIEgens’ structure, performance, mechanism and application.

In recent years, a series of novel organic reactions, named “ionic transfer reaction”, has received much attention. This kind of reaction has a characteristic mechanism and avoids the use of inflammable, explosive, highly toxic and other difficult to operate reagents. It provides a new powerful tool for transfer functionalizations of unsaturated compounds, such as transfer hydrosilylations, transfer hydrogenations, transfer hydrohalogenations, and transfer hydrocyanations. Herein, the recent progress of ionic transfer reactions and related mechanisms are summarized. Furthermore, the future developments of ionic transfer reactions are prospected.

Molnupiravir is an oral drug against SARS-CoV-2 infection approved by Britain and America in 2021. Currently, the reported synthetic methods of molnupiravir have disadvantages, such as long steps, limited yield and high cost. Efficient methods for the synthesis of molnupirovir through direct acylation of low-price cytidine are developed. In different proportions of aqueous tetrahydrofuran solution, selective isobutyrylation of hydroxyl of cytidine and further 2',3'-deprotection of 2',3',5'-tri-O-isobutyrylcytidine could be realized, which successfully gave 5'-O-isobutyrylcytidine. Finally, N⁴-hydroxylation of 5'-O-isobutyrylcytidine yielded molnupirovir. Using this straightforward and high-yielding three-step approach, molnupirovir was obtained from cytidine in 82% overall yield.

Copper-catalyzed Chan-Lam reaction represents an important and highly efficient method for the synthesis of organic molecules containing carbon-heteroatom (C—N, C—O, C—S) bonds, which has many advantages such as mild conditions, wide substrates range and high yields. Therefore, the Chan-Lam coupling reactions are extensively applied in organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry and material science, etc. Although many catalytic systems using different copper salt alone or in combination with various ligands for Chan-Lam coupling reaction have been extensively reported by different groups, the studies on the Chan-Lam coupling reaction employing well-defined copper complexes as catalysts were underdeveloped. In recent years, the Chan-Lam reactions catalyzed by copper complexes with different ligands have attracted more special attention from synthetic chemist and made many achievements. Some novel copper complexes have been designed and synthesized, which were further used as efficient catalysts for Chan-Lam coupling reactions of arylboronic acids with various nucleophiles. The recent progresses on Chan-Lam coupling reactions catalyzed by well-defined copper(II) complexes are summarized from two aspects of homogeneous catalysis and heterogeneous catalysis in detail. Then the homogeneous Chan-Lam reactions are classified by the different coordination mode of copper complexes, and the heterogeneous Chan-Lam reactions are described according to chronological order. The reaction mechanism on Chan-Lam coupling proposed by different research groups is also straightened out and discussed. Finally, the development prospects of this research field are pointed out.

Proteins are the most abundant biomolecules in nature and are involved almost in all living processes. Chemical modification of proteins is an efficient strategy to mediate and study the physical and chemical properties and biological functionalities of proteins. Most protein chemical modifications are based on the bioorthogonal reactivities of the side chain functional groups of certain amino acid residues. Among 20 proteinogenic amino acids, cysteine has become the best choice for chemical protein modification, owning to its relative low abundance in proteins, the unique nucleophilicity and low redox potential of its mercaptan group. The recent advances in chemical protein modification via cysteine are comprehensively reviewed and the challenges and applications for future development are discussed.

Over the past few decades, transition metal-catalyzed reactions have been developed into a powerful tool for building various chemical bonds. At the same time, non-metal-promoted chemical bond construction reactions have attracted more and more attention of synthetic chemists because of the avoiding of using expensive metal catalysts and ligands, resulting in the reduce of reaction costs and environmental pollution. It conforms to the concept of green chemistry development. Among them, potassium tert-butoxide-promoted cyclization and coupling reactions have been rapidly developed. The intramolecular cyclization and intermolecular coupling reactions involving potassium tert-butoxide since 2000 are summarized, and the possible reaction mechanisms are elucidated, which can help chemists better understand the development of this field and promote the development of this field.

α-Chiral primary amine subunits are widespread structural units in a large number of pharmaceutical molecules and are key intermediates toward the preparation of numerous amine-containing drugs. Versatile functionalizations on the NH₂ group also supply a quick way to construct molecular complexity. Additionally, chiral primary amines can serve as ligands or organocatalysts which can be applied in organic synthesis. Therefore, efficient synthetic routes toward chiral primary amines have attracted tremendous attention. Asymmetric chemo-catalytic reactions that are capable of directly preparing chiral primary amines remain scarce. Transition-metal-catalyzed asymmetric reductive amination (ARA), a reaction type that transforms easily available ketones and amines into chiral amines in the presence of a chiral metal-catalyst and reductant, is among the most straightforward methods to access chiral amines. However, studies on ARA are still limited compared to that on imine hydrogenation, probably due to the presence of competitive ketone reduction as the side reaction. ARA using ammonium salts as the amine sources can directly yield chiral primary amines from prochiral ketones and are thus highly attractive and of great significance. In addition to competition with ketone reduction process, this reaction also faces some other challenges, including: (1) NH₃ or the produced primary amines can coordinate to the metal center which results in catalyst poisoning effect; (2) the coordination of amine ligand to the metal center may lead to ligand exchange that enhances the challenge on asymmetric control; (3) the produced primary amines may undergo further alkylation process via double reductive amination, thus providing more complicated outcome. The existing problems and challenges in ARA require urgent development of applicable catalytic systems. Aiming to solve some challenges in the field of ARA with ammonium salts, we have carried out systematic studies and will present the latest progress achieved from our team in this account.

The photo-transition metal synergistically catalyzed coupling reaction provides a new research strategy for the development of metal-catalyzed coupling reactions. In this catalytic system, the excited state photosensitizer controls the valence state of the transition metal intermediate through a single electron transfer process, there by regulating the coupling reaction process, especially for the process that is difficult to occur in traditional transition metal catalysis. In addition, the excited photosensitizers could also promote the coupling reaction through the energy transfer process. Simultaneously, the light-promoted transition metal-catalyzed C—X bond coupling reactions without external photosensitizers have also been rapidly developed. Light and transition metals synergistically catalyzed coupling reactions provide an important tool for the construction of C-heteroatom bonds, showcasing broad application prospects in synthetic chemistry.

As an important kind of synthons, thiosulfonates can react with alkynes, alkenes, aldehydes, and halogenated hydrocarbons to synthesize thioethers and sulfones. At the same time, some thiosulfonate compounds have anti-viral and anti-fungal bioactivities. The synthesis of thiosulfonates and their applications in organic synthesis have been under the spotlight. Thus, according to different types of catalysts and new progress in green chemistry, the synthesis progress of thiosulfonates is summarized. On the other hand, according to the types of reactants and reaction types, the application progress of thiosulfonates in organic synthesis is reviewed. In the future, among the researches on the construction of new sulfides with thiosulfonates, various difunctionalization reactions are still promising directions.

Sulfonium salts are one of the most important class of organosulfur (IV) compounds which have a positive charge on the sulfur center with three C—S bonds. Because of their bench-stable, easy synthesis, broad structural diversity, and rich reactivity, sulfonium salts are playing a significant role in synthetic chemistry. In recent years, visible-light promoted photoredox catalysis is rapidly developing into a powerful tool for organic synthesis. In this paper, the recent advances of different sulfonium salts in the radical type reactions induced by visible light are summarized. The formation reactions of C—C bond and C—X (X=B, N, O, S, Se, Te, F, Cl, I) bonds are introduced, and the applicable scope and mechanism of some reactions are also discussed.

Diazo compounds have rich reactivity and are important synthetic intermediates in organic synthesis. Diazo compounds are commonly used as the precursors of transition metal carbenes, and the relative transition metal catalyzed reactions have achieved many important progresses in the past decades. In sharp contrast, radical reactions with diazo compounds as a key component are still less explored. Owing to the easy generation of diverse radical intermediates under mild conditions, visible-light photoredox catalysis has emerged as a powerful tool for organic synthesis. By the combination of visible light photoredox catalysis and diazo compounds, some novel reactions that different from the classical carbene processes have been developed, which further extend the synthetic applications of these reagents. The progresses of radical reactions of diazo compounds enabled by visible light photoredox catalysis in the past five years are summarized, including: (1) diazo compounds as the nucluophiles, (2) diazo compounds as the equivalents of carbyne precursors, (3) diazo compounds as the radical acceptors, and (4) diazo compounds as the radical precursors. We wish that the detailed discussion on the mechanism of the reactions would help the audiences to understand the features of radical reactions of diazo compounds and the realative visible light chemistry.

The trifluoromethylselenylation reaction is another important research topic after trifluoromethylsulfanylation reaction in recent years. Because the trifluoromethylselenyl group contains two important chemical elements, fluorine and selenium, and the compounds containing trifluoromethyl selenide have important potential biological activities, more and more researchers begin to turn their attention to this new group in recent years. In this paper, according to the three reaction types of nucleophilic trifluoromethylselenylation reaction, electrophilic trifluoromethylselenylation reaction and radical trifluoromethylselenylation reaction, the research results of domestic and foreign scholars on direct trifluoromethylselenylation reaction in recent 6 years are comprehensively summarized, and some reaction mechanisms are discussed in detail. Finally, the direct trifluoromethylselenylation reaction is summarized and prospected.

Chirality is widely found in many natural products and drug molecules. It is of great significance to obtain optically pure chiral compounds because of the fact that different enantiomers have distinct or even opposite physiological activities. Deracemization is the most direct, efficient and atom-economic approach to obtain a single enantiomer, and the emerging photocatalytic deracemization attracts much attention because of its high efficiency. Herein, the recent advances in photocatalytic deracemization are summarized. The future research direction of this field is also prospected.

Toluene derivatives are alkyl aromatic hydrocarbons derived from oil and natural gas and are among the cheapest and most readily available materials for the chemical industry. C—H functionalization is important for the synthesis of various bioactive substances, and inert benzylic hydrocarbon bond activation has long been a big challenge in this field due to the high hydrocarbon bond energy. Therefore, the development of simple and efficient methods for C—C and C—X bonds formation has been demonstrated as one of the hot topics by activating the benzylic C(sp³)—H bonds in recent years. The progress in benzylic C(sp³)—H functionalization of toluene and its derivatives under different catalytic conditions in the past decade is summarized according to different reaction classifications. The reaction substrate compatibility, mechanism, applications, advantages and limitations in this field are also discussed in detail.

As a class of small organic molecules containing (NC) functional groups with high activity, isocyanide has been widely employed in organic synthesis, materials science, as well as coordination chemistry. In recent years, the transition metal-catalyzed isocyanide insertion reactions have attracted much attention due to the convenient and simple operations, the efficiency in the formation of diverse new bonds and good reaction selectivity. A series of highly useful chain or cyclic compounds have been successfully constructed using this strategy, such as functionalized ketones, amides, nitrogen heterocyclic compounds, etc. To study the most recent progress, the advances in transition metal-catalyzed isocyanide insertion reactions since 2017 to 2021 are briefly summarized according to different metal categories, and the future development has also been prospected in this review.

Seven-membered ring skeletons widely exist in many natural products and drug molecules, and it is of great significance to develop efficient asymmetric synthesis methods for seven-membered ring compounds. The progress in the asymmetric synthesis of seven-membered ring compounds by transition metal-catalyzed cycloaddition reactions since 2000 is reviewed. The future development direction of this field is also prospected.

Indole-based chiral heterocycles constitute a class of important heterocyclic compounds that are found in numerous natural products, pharmaceuticals, pesticide, and functional materials. The efficient and highly enantioselective synthesis of chiral indole derivatives has become one of the most important issues in organic chemistry. Due to the simple reactivity of the traditional indoles, their involved catalytic asymmetric reactions are very limited, resulting in the limited types of constructed indole-based frameworks. To solve these challenging issues, chemists devised a strategy of introducing simple functional groups to the indole ring, so as to obtain a series of functionalized indole derivatives, namely indole-based platform molecules, as efficient building blocks for constructing chiral indole-related frameworks. Among them, 2-indolylmethanols are a class of important platform molecules, which were designed on the consideration that the introduction of a hydroxymethyl group to C2-position of the indole ring would change the reactivity and the reactive site of the indole ring. This class of platform molecules can act as either electrophiles or nucleophiles, and can act as multi-carbon building blocks in catalytic asymmetric reactions. Therefore, the design and development of 2-indolylmethanols as platform molecules have provided a new strategy for the efficient and highly enantioselective synthesis of chiral indole derivatives. The advances in catalytic asymmetric reactions using 2-indolylmethanols as platform molecules are summarized, which will open a new window for designing and application of new types of indole-based platform molecules.

The discovery of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) has created a new milestone and new situation in the research of organic luminescence materials. The research on AIE molecules has attracted enormous attention. Among them, trisubstituted olefinic AIE molecules, as new structural types in recent years, have made remarkable progress in their design, synthesis and application. In view of this, according to the structural characteristics of the substituents attached to the carbon-carbon double bond, these trisubstituted olefinic AIE molecules synthesized in recent years are divided into three categories: olefinic AIE molecules substituted (a) by multiple aryl rings, (b) by cyano group(s) and (c) by heteroatoms. As this classification, their molecular mechanisms and applications in the field of organic luminescence materials and fluorescent probes are reviewed, and the future design of the trisubstituted AIE molecules is also prospected.

Asymmetric hydrogenation of carbon-nitrogen unsaturated bonds is an effective method for the construction of chiral amines. However, most of the known examples rely on the use of noble metal (ruthenium, rhodium, iridium, palladium, etc.) catalysts. Therefore, the replacement of noble-metals by earth-abundant and biocompatible first-row transition metals (manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, etc.) for the development of new catalysts in asymmetric hydrogenation reactions is of great significance towards sustainable synthesis of chiral nitrongen-containing fine chemicals. In recent years, earth-abundant metal catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of unsaturated bonds has witnessed significant progress and shown broad prospects for its applications. Considering that the structures and properties of different earth-abundant metal catalysts have remarkable influence on the reactivity, selectivity, and substrate generality of the target transformations, this review provides an overview of earth-abundant metal catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of carbon-nitrogen unsaturated bonds categorized according to the types of central metals in catalysts.

Alkenes are cheap and easily available bulk industrial feedstocks. Difunctionalization of alkenes can rapidly construct complex molecules, which have broad applications in organic synthesis. Compared with traditional redox-neutral alkene difunctionalization, the reductive difunctionalization of alkenes can introduce two different electrophiles to both sides of the carbon-carbon double bond, which has the advantages of mild reaction conditions, high functional group tolerance, and no need for pre-prepared organometallic reagents. The latest research progress in nickel-catalyzed reductive difunctionalization of alkenes is summarized. The development prospect of the reaction is prospected.

Propargyl alcohols as a classical bifunctional group compounds possess alcohol hydroxyl group and carbon-carbon triple bond. Due to their special structure, they show unique reaction characteristics, and are employed in reactions via activating its alcoholic hydroxyl group or triple bond. The most typical reaction for propargyl alcohols is various cyclization reactions with different compounds to assemble a richer variety of cyclized compounds such as cyclopentene, pyrrole, furan, cyclic carbonate, pyran, pyridine and azepine cyclic compounds. The recent research progress in the cyclization reaction of propargyl alcohols with various compounds, including [3+2], [2+3], [3+3], [4+2], [2+4], [4+1], [3+4] and other types of cyclization reactions, is summarized.

Aniline and its derivatives, as the basic aromatic amine compounds, are widely used in different fields such as chemistry, biology, medicine, dyes, polymer materials and agriculture. Moreover, hydrogenation reduction of nitrobenzene is a simple method for the synthesis of aniline. According to the difference of proton/electron donor, the reduction of nitrobenzene can be divided into Bechamp reduction, catalytic hydrogenation, catalytic hydrogen transfer and Zinin reduction. Zinin reduction is a method for preparing aniline by reducing nitro group by using sulfide as electron donor and protic solvent as hydrogen source, which is widely used in the laboratory research and industrial production. In this review, Zinin reduction method is systematically summarized. The principle of reduction of nitro group by sulfide is clarified from the types of sulfide reductants, the reduction mechanism of nitro group, and the application of nitro group reduction. Additionally, the reduction mechanism of nitro group by elemental sulfur, sulfide, polysulfide and hydrosulfide is detailly elucidated, and the regulatory mechanism of OH^- and H₂O in the reduction of nitro group by sulfide is explained in detail. Finally, the ability and application effect of different sulfides as reductants to reduce nitro group are analyzed in terms of atom economy.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in late 2019 posed a serious threat to the world population. Some effective vaccines are currently approved and widely used, but the long-term efficacy and safety of this intervention is controversial given the highly mutagenic nature of the coronavirus. In addition, some antiviral drugs show better effects, but their safety and universality have not been supported by more data. Coronavirus main protease (3CL^pro) is a special cysteine protease in the coronavirus family, responsible for processing viral polyproteins to produce yield mature non-structural proteins, which play an important role in the life cycle of coronaviruses and are highly conserved, and therefor is considered as a prominent target for antiviral drug. Strucure studies provide valuable insight into the function of this protease and structural basis of rational inhibitor design. This paper reviews the structure of SARS-CoV-2 3CL^pro and the research progress of bright spot inhibitors targeting 3CL^pro so far, and introduces binding mode and the structure-activity relationships of inhibitors and 3CL^pro in detail. Additionally, we broadly examine available antiviral activity, ADMET and animal tests of these inhibitors.

Epoxides and aziridines are important three-membered cyclic compounds, which exhibit high reactivity due to their strong strain in molecules. The asymmetric ring-opening reactions of epoxides and aziridines catalyzed by transition metals are efficient strategies for the construction of chiral molecules containing O/N atoms. In this way, a series of chiral alcohols, chiral amines and chiral heterocycles can be constructed. The recent progress in transition metal-catalyzed asymmetric ring-opening reactions of epoxides and aziridines in the past two decades is reviewed with emphasis on the influence of the kinds of transition metal catalysts, nucleophiles, and ligands. Furthermore, the possible reaction mechanisms and applications for the asymmetric ring-opening reactions are discussed, and the future development in this field is also prospected.

Alkenes and their functionalized derivatives represent a versatile class of building blocks in organic synthesis. The traditional synthetic methods include Wittig olefination, Peterson olefination, Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons reaction and others, and many of these classic reactions have also become textbook knowledge. Most of these methods are based on ionic pathways and some still require pre-functionalization at the sites where C—C double bonds are formed, resulting some limitations on substrate scope or functional group tolerance. Over the past few years, photoredox catalysis has become a powerful platform for new reaction design owing to its green chemistry characteristics and unique activation modes. The recently developed and representative methods for the synthesis of alkenes under photochemical conditions are summarized. Moreover, the prospects of further developments are also discussed.

Near-ultraviolet and visible light-induced organic synthesis without photosensitizer has attracted much attention for the organic chemists. Since no photosensitizer is needed in the reaction, it makes the reaction system more simple and feasible, and indicates the future development direction for visible-light-induced organic transformations. Visible-light-promoted organic synthesis without photosensitizer is reviewed in this paper. It covers organic photosyntheses in which the substrate/product as a light-absorbing substance, the electron donor acceptor (EDA) complex as a light-absorbing substance, and the homolysis of weak covalent chemical bonds under the visible-light irradiation conditions. Moreover, other organic photosynthetic reactions without external photocatalyst are also discussed.

Chiral organosulfur compounds are not only important synthetic intermediates and catalysts in the field of organic synthesis, but also widely exist in many natural products and clinical drugs. The development of efficient synthesis of chiral organosulfur compounds has always been an important research topic in organic synthetic chemistry, in which enantioselective electrophilic sulfenylation reactions have attracted significant attention in recent years. Hydrogen bond interactions provide much flexibility in the preorganization of compounds and have gradually become a powerful tool in asymmetric catalysis. Inspired from this, our group developed a type of Lewis base/Brønsted acid synergistic catalysis strategy based on the hydrogen bonding interaction, and successfully applied it to intra- and inter-molecular asymmetric sulfenylation of different kinds of alkenes, and enantioselective sulfenylation substitution reactions of aryl compounds. A variety of chiral organosulfur compounds were obtained with high efficiency. The recent advances of enantioselective electrophilic arylthiolation reactions using novel synergistic catalysis strategy developed by our group are summarized, and the prospect of this research topic is also discussed.

Synthesis of fluorine-containing compounds is greatly dependent upon the development and application of fluorinated reagents. Thanks to the unique fluorine effects, fluorinated reagents usually exhibit different properties and reaction profiles from those of the non-fluorinated analogues. Among various trifluoromethoxylation reagents, trifluoromethyl trifluoromethanesulfonate has drawn much attention in recent years because of its easy preparation, low cost and diverse reactivities. This reagent rapidly decomposes to form trifluoromethoxy anion in the presence of fluoride ion, thus regarded as a reservoir of trifluoromethoxy anion, and has been widely used in the nucleophilic trifluoromethoxylation reactions. Moreover, the trifluoromethoxy anion derived from trifluoromethyl trifluoromethanesulfonate and nucleophiles has poor thermal stability and tends to decompose at room temperature to afford fluorophosgene and fluorine anion, which can be used as a carbonylation reagent, a fluoroformylation reagent, a condensation agent or a nucleophilic fluorination reagent. The trifluoromethoxylation, carbonylation and fluorination reactions with trifluoromethyl trifluoromethanesulfonate as the reagent are reviewed.

Tropomyosin receptor kinase (TRK) is a tyrosine kinase family activated by nerve growth factor, including TRKA, TRKB and TRKC, which are encoded by NTRK1 (neurorosine receptor tyrosine kinase 1), NTRK2 and NTRK3 genes, respectively. After phosphorylation, TRK kinase can activate downstream signaling molecules, and then regulate cell proliferation, differentiation, metabolism and apoptosis. The NTRK gene can fuse with other genes, resulting in high kinase expression or continuous increase of kinase activity, leading to cancer. The main strategy for targeting NTRK fusion genes is to develop small molecule inhibitors of TRK that act on the intracellular kinase region. In recent years, the development of TRK small molecule inhibitors has also attracted the attention of researchers. The structure, physiological function, TRK inhibitors and therapeutic strategies to overcome drug resistance of TRK kinase are reviewed.

A chiral phosphoric acid catalyzed aza-1,8-conjugate addition of isoxazol-5(4H)-ones to 6-methylene-6H-indoles formed in situ from 6-indolylmethanols has been developed for the first time. Notably, the remote stereocontrolled 1,8-addition of isoxazol-5(4H)-ones was featured by N-selectivity, affording aza-adducts in 70%~83% yields with 61%~96% ee.

Isocyanate is an important intermediate in organic synthesis, which could be prepared via the reaction of Hoffman rearrangement, Curtis rearrangement or Lossen rearrangement. Considering avoiding the hazardous and potentially explosive reagents, chemists have focused on Lossen rearrangement and made the progress and applications of this reaction. The development and applications of the typical reactions of Lossen rearrangement based on its mechanism are systematically summarized. The direction of future research is also prospected.

In recent years, multi-resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR-TADF) materials have attracted wide attention because of their excellent photophysical properties and electroluminescent performance. By introducing electron-deficient and electron-rich centers (such as boron and nitrogen atoms) in the framework of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the HOMO and LUMO can be separated on different atoms due to the opposite resonance effects, which can reduce the singlet-triplet energy gap (ΔE_ST) to achieve TADF properties. Compared with conventional donor-acceptor type TADF materials, MR-TADF materials have rigid skeletons and show short-range charge transfer characteristics, which are conducive to realizing narrowband luminescence with high color purity and high quantum efficiency, making them ideal luminescent materials and widely used in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Since the first report of MR-TADF materials based on B,N-heteroarenes in 2016, significant progress has been achieved in the development of new materials. However, a timely summary on this topic is still lacking. In this review, the design strategy and synthetic method of MR-TADF materials based on B,N-heteroarenes are summarized, and the recent advances in the development of new molecular skeletons, the backbone modification strategy to tune the properties, and a novel type of chiral MR-TADF materials are discussed. It is expected that the current review would further promote the development and application of MR-TADF materials in the future.

Vinylogous reaction serves as an efficient tool to introduce a new functional group at the γ-position (or even more remote position) of the parent functional group. The produced highly functionalized structure motifs (especially chiral ones) are ubiquitous in natural products, biologically active compounds and pharmaceuticals. Moreover, they work as important synthetic intermediates in organic syntheses. Therefore, asymmetric vinylogous reaction has gained extensive attention in recent years. Our group is interested in the development of efficient direct vinylogous reactions by using copper catalysts with a focus on the catalytic asymmetric variants. Herein, the advances in our group in this field are reviewed. Both α,β-unsaturated and β,γ-unsaturated compounds (including esters, aldehydes, ketones, phosphonates, sulfones, and nitriles) are used as the vinylogous pronucleophiles. Aldehydes, ketones, imines, and molecular oxygen are employed as the electrophiles. This account is divided into three sections based on the varied electrophiles: asymmetric vinylogous aldol reaction, asymmetric vinylogous Mannich reaction and vinylogous aerobic oxidative hydroxylation. By using suitable copper catalysts, these reactions generally afforded the vinylogous products in good to excellent yields with good to excellent control of regio-, diastereo-, and enantioselectivities.

Reactive fluorescent probes with the features of excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) and aggregation-induced emission (AIE) have been widely used in the detection of various anions, metal cations and biomolecules in recent years, because they have some advantages including good biocompatibility, good sensing performance, a large Stokes shift, and as well high fluorescence quantum efficiency. The progress in reactive fluorescent probes that are structural simple and have the combined structures of AIE and ESIPT is briefly summarized, and the probes are divided into several types such as benzothiazole, salicylaldehyde Schiff base, hydrazine dihydrazone, chalcone fluorophore, etc. The related researches are discussed and prospected.

Sulfoxonium ylides are witnessed as powerful reagents for various organic transformations due to its high stability and diverse reactivity in organic synthesis. The research progress of sulfoxonium ylides involved in the construction of nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds is systematically summarized. The new methods and progress of sulfoxonium ylides as an important synthon to construct five-membered and six-membered nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds, such as pyrrole, imidazole, indole, quinoline, quinoxaline, and cinnoline, are summarized, and the future development trend of green synthesis of nitrogen heterocycles from sulfoxonium ylides is also prospected.

Organosilanes are versatile intermediates and products in material chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry and synthetic chemistry because of their unique physical, chemical and physiological properties. In the past century, the synthesis of organosilanes containing C—Si bonds has gradually become one of the research hotspots. Due to the high tolerance of functional groups, good atomic economy and chemoselectivity of radical chemistry, the construction of C—Si bond via free radical silylation reaction has achieved great progress in recent years. The research progress of the radical silylation reactions exploring silane as the precursor of silicon radical in the last decade is summarized, and the related reaction mechanism is discussed.

In recent years, visible-light photocatalytic asymmetric synthesis has shown considerable potential in the mild and rapid construction of optically active organic molecules with structural diversity. Chiral Lewis acids (CLA), including chiral borane compounds, lanthanum complexes, first-row transition metal complexes, and chiral-at-iridium or rhodium complexes, have been established as one class of the most effective catalysts being capable of controlling the stereochemistry in photo-induced chemical transformations. The recent advances in this emerging field were presented by classifying the reactions into bifunctional CLA photocatalytic reactions and reactions enabled by dual catalysis with a CLA catalyst and an external photosensitizer, expecting that these studies will stimulate progress in organic synthesis, photocatalysis and asymmetric catalysis.

Carbohydrates are not only an energy source for life activities, but also play a vital role in many physiological activities and drug development. Glycosylation is the core reaction of carbohydrate chemistry, and it is still a big challenge to develop a general stereoselective and efficent glycosylation method. The control of stereoselectivity is mainly carried out from three aspects: glycosyl donors, catalytic conditions and glycosyl acceptors. Among them, the development of glycosyl donors is the most concerned. The development of functional group of glycosyl donors on stereoselective regulation in the past decades is summarized. According to the way in which the functional groups participate in the glycosylation reactions, they are divided into neighboring-group participating groups, remote group participating groups, intramolecular aglycone delivery groups, coordination functional groups and hydrogen-bonding mediated groups.

α-Hydroxyl ketones are an important class of compounds. They are not only the key structural fragments of many biologically active natural products, but also the important synthetic building blocks, hence α-hydroxyl ketones are employed in the synthesis of various biologically active molecules and drugs. The nucleophilic addition reactions and the cycloaddition reactions involving α-hydroxyl ketones are sorted out and summarized.