Heck-like Reactions Involving Heteroatomic Electrophiles

Since the discovery of the Heck reaction in the early seventies, this reaction has become a powerful tool in synthetic organic chemistry. By employing heteroatomic instead of traditional carbon electrophiles, the Heck reaction shows an intriguing flexibility. These "hetereoatomic-Heck reactions" reinvigorate the area, offering new routes to highly useful synthetic precursors and structural motifs present in biologically active compounds. This microreview focuses on early developments leading to the heteroatomic-Heck reactions (silyl-Heck, boryl-Heck and intramolecular aza-Heck), current state of the emerging area, as well as that of a few related processes.