Novel Syntheses of N-heterocycles From Nitroarenes

Nitrosoarenes present intriguing synthetic targets due to their utility in forming new C–N bonds through ene-, nitroso-aldol, and electrocyclization type reactions. This utility has spurned research focused upon synthesizing and utilizing nitrosoarenes for over a century. However, a major difficulty in synthesizing nitrosoarenes is that their high reactivity can lead to undesired side products and are generally not benchtop stable. As such, current methods seek to access nitrosoarene reactive intermediates in situ towards the synthesis of increasingly complex molecules. The Driver group has focused on developing methodologies accessing nitrosoarenes from the reduction of nitroarenes. Herein, I provide the details of my contributions to this ever-expanding field.