β-Nitroacrylates: A Versatile and Growing Class of Functionalized Nitroalkenes

beta-Nitroacrylates are an important subclass of nitroolefins in which an ester and a nitro group are simultaneously linked, in alpha- and beta-positions, to a double bond. This peculiarity makes these nitro derivatives highly reactive with a plethora of nucleophiles, very often under extremely mild reaction conditions, and thus they can serve as excellent building blocks towards highly functionalized materials. Based on the growing application of beta-nitroacrylates in organic synthesis, we considered it to be useful to highlight in this review the most important results obtained over the last ten years.