Conjugate Additions to Vinyl-Substituted Aromatic N-Heterocycles

Conjugate or Michael addition to vinyl-substituted aromatic N-heterocycles has been a useful synthetic method for the synthesis of functionalized heterocyclic compounds. A wide variety of heterocycles and nucleophiles undergo this chemistry. Recent work in this area has utilized transition-metal catalysts and some asymmetric synthesis has been accomplished. An overview of this chemistry is presented in this account. 1 Introduction 2 General Aspects 3 Carbon-Centered Nucleophiles 4 Nitrogen-Centered Nucleophile 5 Oxygen and Sulfur Nucleophiles 6 Transition-Metal-Catalyzed Reactions 7 Asymmetric Conjugate Addition 8 Summary and Outlook