Coupling reactions of zirconocene complexes and heterosubstituted alkenes

This tutorial review surveys recent advances in the field of zirconium promoted coupling reactions of unsaturated molecules (and/or organolithium compounds) and heterosubstituted alkenes. This reaction has recently emerged as a powerful tool in organic chemistry to access a variety of synthetically useful building blocks not easily available by other methods. In particular, three different reaction pathways are discussed: i) the reaction involving alkyne-zirconocene and aryne-zirconocene complexes which allows access to dienyl and aryl zirconocene complexes; ii) the reaction of alkene-zirconocene complexes and enol ethers which has shown to be highly dependent on the structure of the enol ether used, allowing the synthesis of simple vinyl zirconocenes or multicomponent coupling products, and; iii) the reaction involving imine-zirconocene complexes which supposes a new entry to allylic amines.