Molecular iodine: Mild, green, and nontoxic lewis acid catalyst for the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds

Abstract

The synthetic uses of molecular iodine are described. This chapter discusses the versatile uses of iodine in heterocyclic synthesis. Iodine is a universal oxidizing agent, a mild and nontoxic Lewis acid catalyst, and it catalyzes various organic reactions with high efficiency and selectivity. Also, iodine acts as an electrophile-nucleophile dual activator in the reactions. Further applications are the introduction of protecting groups, deprotection, iodocyclization, C-C bond formation, and formation of heterocycles. It is quite clear from the growing number of emerging publications in this field that the possibility to utilize this technology allows accessing the reaction conditions that is valuable for heterocyclic synthesis. The present chapter focuses on literature reports for the period of 2003-2013.