Transition Metal-Catalyzed Synthesis of 1,2,3,4-Tetrasubstituted 1,3-Dienes from Propargylic Esters

Transition metal-catalyzed synthesis of propargylic esters has been widely investigated, offering distinctive opportunities to build 1,3-diene skeletons. Access to 1,2,3,4-tetrasubstituted 1,3-dienes has been a longstanding challenge in organic synthesis due to a great diversity of stereoisomers from four substituents and unpredictable regioselectivity. Given the synthetic challenges and the importance, inventing methods for the generation of this valuable architecture has gathered much more attention. Recently, several intriguing works concerning this topic have been achieved towards the high regio- and stereoselective elaborate 1,2,3,4-tetrasubstituted 1,3-dienes. Herein, this concept summarizes recent advances in transition metal-catalyzed construction of 1,2,3,4-tetrasubstituted 1,3-dienes from propargylic esters and discusses the mechanism as well as their applications.