Recent developments on the chemistry of aliphatic nitro compounds under aqueous medium

Aliphatic nitro derivatives represent an important class of useful molecules in organic synthesis. The versatility of these compounds is largely due to their easy availability and transformation into a variety of diverse functionalities. Moreover, aliphatic nitro compounds are very important building blocks (both as nucleophiles or as electrophiles) for the generation of new carbon–carbon bonds, mainly via nitroaldol-Henry reactions, Michael reactions and Diels–Alder cycloadditions. Usually, organic solvents are believed to be necessary for achieving the best efficiency in the reactions of aliphatic nitro compounds and, only recently, it has been shown that these reactions are also very efficient using water as reaction medium. Such progress in the chemistry of aliphatic nitro compounds is particularly attractive to industry since the replacement of toxic solvents still remains a crucial (and expensive) challenge. Thus, this report is focused on the chemistry of aliphatic nitro derivatives performed in aqueous media. © 2007 The Royal Society of Chemistry.