The work on development of organic reactions that are tolerant to air and moisture, especially that of carbon-carbon bond forming reactions, had only started in the early 1990s. Our laboratory had approached this subject when it was still in its infancy and had developed methodologies for that end. In this article, our decade of work on indium complexes as Lewis acids is summarised.

Cobalt 'n' cross-coupling! A facile and practical strategy catalyzed by CoCl(2)6 H(2)O has been developed for the N-arylation of nitrogen nucleophiles with substituted aryl halides in water. The protocol is very simple and requires only mild conditions. A variety of nitrogen nucleophiles, including pyrazole, indole, and 7-azaindole, undergo catalysis to afford N-arylated products in moderate to good yields (up to 86 %; see scheme).

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A facile and convenient strategy for the assembly of N-arylated heterocycles has been demonstrated using a MnCl2.4H2O/trans-1,2-diaminocyclohexane catalyst and K3PO4 as the base in water.