Synthesis of Heterocycles through Denitrogenative Cyclization of Triazoles and Benzotriazoles

During the past few decades, there has been considerable growth in the development of denitrogenative reactions of triazole skeletons to construct valuable cyclic compounds, particularly heterocycles. Despite the inherent difficulty of the ring-opening of triazole derivatives, many novel and efficient approaches have arisen in this area mainly with the use of transition metal (such as rhodium, palladium, silver, copper) catalysis, photolysis, or free radical mediated reactions. Generally, these procedures begin with the ring-opening of 1,2,3-triazoles or benzotriazoles followed by N₂ extrusion and subsequent diverse transformations, which enable the rapid synthesis of various heterocycles in a single step. To avoid overlap with other related reviews, this minireview covers the recent advances in the denitrogenative cyclization of 1,2,3-triazoles since 2016 and the denitrogenative cyclization of benzotriazoles since 2012.