An Overview of Catalytic Carbonylative Double Cyclization Reactions

This short review is aimed at giving an overview of catalytic carbonylative double cyclization reactions, which are processes in which suitable organic substrates and carbon monoxide are sequentially activated by a promoting a catalyst to form two new cycles with the concomitant incorporation of carbon monoxide as a carbonyl function in the final product. Paradigmatic examples of this powerful synthetic methodology, which allows the one-step synthesis of complex molecular architectures from simple building blocks using the simplest and readily available C-1 unit (CO), are illustrated and discussed. The review is divided into five sections: (1) Introduction, (2) Functionalized Olefinic Substrates, (3) Functionalized Acetylenic Substrates, (4) Functionalized Halides, (5) Conclusions and Future Perspectives.