Samarium(III) Triflate in Organic Synthesis: a Mild and Efficient Catalyst

Abstract Lanthanides have shown great potential in the field of magnetic materials, telecommunications, hard‐disk drives, catalysis, medicine, agriculture, and more. Recently, lanthanide complexes have gained significant attention in cancer diagnosis and therapy because of the multifunctional chemical and magnetic activities of the lanthanide‐ion 4 f electronic configuration. Among lanthanides, samarium metal and its derivatives have been the subject of many applications in organic transformations. Various metal triflates such as Bi(OTf) 3 , Yb(OTf) 3 , In(OTf) 3 , Sc(OTf) 3 , Er(OTf) 3 , Ce(OTf) 3 , Sm(OTf) 3 , and others play a profound role in developing novel eco‐friendly protocols in organic synthesis with excellent efficiency and selectivity. Among lanthanide triflate, samarium(III) triflate has a remarkable contribution in synthesizing promising organic molecules as it has been shown to be moisture tolerant and a reusable Lewis catalyst under mild conditions. The present review aims to focus on different useful protocols using samarium(III) triflate as an efficient catalyst for the first time elegantly.