Catalysis has played a prominent role in recent decades allowing chemists to
develop novel and efficient reactions in almost every class of chemical transformation.
With the tuning of the catalysts’ steric and electronic properties, sophisticated reactions
have been discovered, sometimes featuring several individual steps and resulting in
one-pot formation of complex chemical structures with high atom-economy. With the
increasing recognition of the importance of green and sustainable chemistry, the
concept of step-economy has gained traction and one-pot multistep reactions have been
developed. Current research in this area now focuses on the use of multiple catalysts
within the same reactor to convert simple and available substrates into complex and
valuable products. In this chapter, we review a selection of examples of catalytic
tandem reactions triggered by the introduction of a carbonyl function either formed by
oxidation of alcohols, hydroformylation, isomerisation or carbonylation. In particular,
we emphasize nanocatalysis, the use of metal nanoparticles as catalysts. The in situ
formation of reactive carbonyl electrophiles opens a wide array of possible subsequent
reactions as illustrated in the following pages.
Keywords: Biocatalysis, Dual catalysis, Fine chemicals, Green chemistry, Metal
nanoparticles, Multicatalysis, Nanocatalysis, One-pot reactions, Organocatalysis,
Orthogonal multicatalysis, Oxidation, Sustainable chemistry, Tandem reactions.
