Recent Advances on the Lewis Acid-Catalyzed Cascade Rearrangements of Propargylic Alcohols and Their Derivatives

Propargylic alcohols and their derivatives are important classes of organic compounds that can be easily accessible from terminal alkynes and aldehydes or ketones. They are attractive and have been extensively applied as synthetic intermediates in modern organic synthesis. Recent investigations on the chemistry of propargylic alcohols and their derivatives disclosed a variety of highly efficient Lewis acid-catalyzed cascade reactions based on Meyer-Schuster rearrangement of propargylic alcohols and [3,3] rearrangement of propargylic esters and propargyl vinyl ethers. A tremendous number of structurally versatile enones, carbocycles, and heterocycles have been constructed through these methodologies. These advances, including our recent researches in this field, are summarized in this review.