Recent Advances in Carbonylative Difunctionalization of Alkenes

The carbonylation reaction represents one of the most powerful methods for the rapid build-up of carbonyl structures and has widely applied in both academic and industry fields. Carbonylative difunctionalization of alkenes, which installs a unique functional group and a carbonyl group across the C-C double bonds, offers a high potential strategy for the selective synthesis of beta-substituted carbonyl compounds. The carbonylative difunctionalization of alkenes involves the formation of three sigma-bonds and two stereocenters as well as a carbonyl group in a single transformation. Careful design of the substrate and control of reaction pathway would result unexpected advantages in constructing complex structures, which are ubiquitous in natural products, pharmaceuticals and functional materials. In this Review, the important advances and contributions in carbonylative difunctionalization of alkenes are summarized based on the different reaction types, with the wish to inspire future studies and promote further developments in this field.