Deep Eutectic Mixtures: Promising Sustainable Solvents for Metal-Catalysed and Metal-Mediated Organic Reactions

This microreview is intended to cover the progress made in metal-mediated and metal-catalysed organic reactions performed in a new family of inexpensive, greener and biorenewable eutectic mixtures, the so-called Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs), as environmentally friendly reaction media. This ambitious research is focused on studies of particular interest in organometallic chemistry, in search of synthetic strategies able to optimise the overall process in an eco-friendly manner. This microreview aims to provide an overview of the application of DESs in the fields of: (i) Ru- and Au-catalysed isomerisation and cycloisomerisation of organic substrates, (ii) Cu-catalysed click chemistry and C-C bond-formation reactions, (iii) Pd-catalysed cross-coupling processes and Tsuji-Trost reactions, (iv) Rh-catalysed hydrogenation and hydroformylation of alkenes, (v) addition of RMgX and RLi compounds to ketones, and (vi) regioselective ortho- and lateral lithiation of aryltetrahydrofurans.