Divergent Iron-Catalyzed Olefin Cyclization for Saturated N-Heterocycles Syntheses

Saturated N-heterocycles are important motifs in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and materials. While many catalytic methods can cyclize an intramolecular N-containing substrate into one specific N-heterocycle, the regio-complementary cyclization process is often difficult to achieve. Herein, we report the development of two simple iron catalytic protocols enabling divergent cyclization of a common precursor into distinct N-heterocyclic motifs, including pyrrolidines, piperidines, and azepanes.