Engaging Yne-Allenes in Cycloaddition Reactions: Recent Developments

Jia-Yin Wang, Wen-Juan Hao,* Shu-Jiang Tu,* Bo Jiang*

Yne-allenes bearing both a C-C triple bond and an allene unit are a class of focal substrates in organic synthesis, in view of their structure diversity, high reactivity and intermediate variety in the past years. Engaging yne-allenes in numerous annulation cascades provide efficient and direct accesses to elaborate functionalized polycyclic molecular architectures in a convergent manner. There are lots of types of catalytic chemical reactions such as intramolecular cyclizations, cycloisomerizations, intermolecular annulations, and bicyclizations as well as tricyclizations with the assistance of Lewis acids, Brønsted acids, bases, transition metals, and other catalysts. This review provides an overview of the chemistry developed with transformations of yne-allenes by discussing their general and specific reactivities, presenting and commenting on their mechanisms as well as their applications.

Chin. J. Chem. 2022, 40, 1224-1242; DOI: 10.1002/cjoc.202100856