Intermolecular alkene difunctionalizations for the synthesis of saturated heterocycles

Saturated heterocycles are important structural motifs in a range of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. As a result of their importance, syntheses of these molecules have been extensively investigated. Despite the progress in this area, the most adopted strategies are still often characterized with inefficiency or relying on functionalizations with specialized precursors and pre-existing cores. This review highlights a dynamic synthetic strategy for the direct synthesis of saturated heterocycles from intermolecular alkene difunctionalizations. These coupling processes are highly modular, and therefore, offer perhaps the most convenient means to prepare diverse heterocyclic structures in compound libraries for bioactivity evoluations.