β-Nitroacrylates: Synthesis and applications as Electrophiles

Abstract

As reported above, nitro compounds can be distingue between nucleophiles and electrophiles.Particular behavior have been demonstrated b- nitroacrylates 3 as electrophiles, in fact, they are a very useful source for the synthesis of a large variety of fine chemicals. b-Nitroacrylates^[1] are a class of electron-poor alkenes having two electron-withdrawing groups in a- and

b-positions. This peculiarity makes their chemical behavior more interesting with respect to the classical conjugated nitroalkenes and, in the last few years, there has been a growing interest in the chemistry of these molecules because they have been used as key building blocks for the synthesis of useful structures, including fragments of natural substances and biologically active compounds. The molecular structure presents an olefin conjugated with the nitro group, so, the carbon in the aposition becomes more electropositive and it is subjected to a regioselective nucleophilic attack(Scheme 1).