Metal Mediated Synthesis of 2-thiazolines: Access to Regio- and Stereoselective N,S-heterocycles

2-thiazolines are very important structural motifs in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and in chemistry. Due to their extensive applications, synthesis of these molecules has been investigated widely in recent years. Despite the progress in these areas, the development of efficient methodologies to synthesize such type of molecules, avoiding the use of relatively expensive and/or toxic reagents, harsh reaction conditions and low yields of products, are in high demand. Transition-metal catalysts played significant roles to meet these challenges in past few decades to synthesize stereochemically important N-heterocycles. This mini review focuses on the metal mediated synthetic strategies and challenges of 2-thiazolines. It was found that most of these protocols involved the formation of both C-N and C-S bonds and the major challenges were the stereochemistry at C-4 position and C(2)-exomethine position. Moreover, the development of asymmetric processes was completely overlooked. Here, the reaction scopes, limitations, mechanistic overview and future prospects are also discussed.

Automated summary

2-thiazolines are important structural motifs in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and chemistry, and their synthesis has been widely investigated. Transition-metal catalysts have played significant roles in synthesizing stereochemically important N-heterocycles, but challenges in stereochemistry and asymmetric processes still remain. Further research is needed to address the scope, limitations and future prospects in the metal mediated synthetic strategies of 2-thiazolines.