Synthetic Strategies of N‐Heterocyclic Olefin (NHOs) and Their Recent Application of Organocatalytic Reactions and Beyond

Abstract

AbstractN‐heterocyclic olefin (NHO) derivatives have an electron‐rich as well as highly polarized carabon‐carbon (C=C) double bond because of the electron‐donating nature of nitrogen and sulphur atoms. While NHOs have been developing as novel organocatalysts and ligands for transition‐metal complexes in various organic compound syntheses, different research groups are currently interested in preparing imidazole and triazolium‐based chiral NHO catalysts. Some of them have been used for enantioselective organic transformations, but were still elusive. N‐heterocyclic olefins, the alkylidene derivatives of N‐heterocyclic carbenes (NHC), have shown promising results as effective promoters for numerous organic syntheses such as asymmetric catalysis, hydroborylation, hydrosilylation, reduction, CO2 sequestration, alkylation, cycloaddition, polymerization and the ring‐opening reaction of aziridine and epoxides, esterification, C−F bond functionalization, amine coupling, trifluoromethyl thiolation, amination etc. NHOs catalysts with suitable structures can serve as a novel class of Lewis/Bronsted bases with strong basicity and high nucleophilicity properties.These facts strongly suggest their enormous chemical potential as sustainable catalysts for a wide variety of reactions in synthetic chemistry. The synthesis of NHOs and their properties are briefly reviewed in this article, along with a summary of the imidazole and triazole core of NHOs′ most recent catalytic uses.