Advances in Palladium‐Catalyzed Decarboxylative Cycloadditions of Cyclic Carbonates, Carbamates and Lactones

Palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative cycloadditions have emerged as highly effective methods for constructing structurally diverse carbo- and heterocycles because of the formation of at least two carbon-carbon or carbon-heteroatom bonds in a single step. It is of great interest to chemists that this type of cycloaddition reactions possesses some special advantages such as high reactivity, exclusive regioselectivity, and good functional group compatibility. Based on these qualities, palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative cycloadditions present strong ability in synthetic chemistry and have been flourished especially in the last five years. In this review, the achievements in palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative cycloadditions involving cyclic carbonates, carbamates, and lactones for accessing oxacyclo-, azacyclo- and carbocyclic compounds are addressed. Mechanistic insights and some synthetic applications toward the synthesis of natural products are discussed. The challenges and opportunities of this field are also outlined.