Explorations of the Heteroatom Directed Photoarylation Reaction. A Review of the Photoinitiated Intramolecular Cycloaddition Reactions of Ylide Systems

The photoinitiated intramolecular ylide-olefin addition has been developed as an approach for the construction of one ring and two chiral centers, two rings and three chiral centers or three rings and six chiral centers in a single experimental operation from relatively simple starting materials. These investigations have uncovered several interesting and unusual reactions, which are sensitive to controls such as wavelength, temperature and solvent.