Nitrene Chemistry in Organic Synthesis: Still in Its Infancy?

The element nitrogen is essential to life. Considerable attention is thus paid to the development of synthetic methods for its introduction into molecules. Nitrenes, long regarded as highly reactive but poorly selective species, have recently emerged as useful tools for the formation of C-N bonds. Practical metal-catalyzed protocols are now available for the preparation of amines through either the aziridination of alkenes or the C-H amination of alkanes. Recent results highlighted in this Minireview suggest that synthetic nitrene chemistry is maturing with a wider scope not limited to these two reactions. Long regarded as highly reactive but poorly selective species, nitrenes have recently emerged as useful tools for C-N bond-forming reactions. Their capacity to insert into various bonds has led to the development of efficient catalytic C-H amination and alkene aziridination reactions. In recent work several click-type reactions using nitrenes have been developed. Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.