Cycloisomerization

Cycloisomerization is any isomerization in which the cyclic isomer of the substrate is produced in the reaction coordinate. The greatest advantage of cycloisomerization reactions is its atom economical nature, by design nothing is wasted, as every atom in the starting material is present in the product. In most cases these reactions are mediated by a transition metal catalyst, in few cases organocatalysts and rarely do they occur under thermal conditions. These cyclizations are able to be performed with excellent levels of selectivity in numerous cases and have transformed cycloisomerization into a powerful tool for unique and complex molecular construction. Cyclosiomerization is a very broad topic in organic synthesis and many reactions that would be categorized as such exist. Two basic classes of these reactions are intramolecular Michael addition and Intramolecular Diels–Alder reactions. Under the umbrella of cycloisomerization, enyne and related olefin cycloisomerizations are the most widely used and studied reactions.