Nitromethane Chemistry

Over the past few years I have noticed resurgence in the use of nitrocompounds, in academic papers at least, especially in combination with organocatalysis as a powerful means of forming C-C bonds enantioselectively.  Hayashi et al (Angew Chem Int Ed, 2011, 50, 3920) devised an oxidative system to generate nitroaldehydes in 62-80% chemical yield with 85-95%ee.  An example is presented below.

The procedure appears to be an operationally simple one pot procedure representing a means to convert a C-H bond into a C-C bond with the versatile nitro functional group attached.