Strained heterocycles in radical chemistry.

Over the last few decades the use of radicals in synthesis has witnessed an explosive growth through introduction of efficient chain and electron-transfer reactions. Strained heterocycles, in particular, have emerged as a highly versatile and readily available class of radical precursors. The generation of carbinyl radicals of heterocycles has resulted in many elegant applications of heteroatom-centered radicals, such as beta fragmentations, cyclizations, and intramolecular hydrogen atom abstractions. Direct electron transfer to strained heterocycles has been realized through the use of arene radical anions. The method combines the virtues of radical and organometallic chemistry to yield useful functionalized organolithium compounds. Epoxides have been opened with high regioselectivity by titanocene(III) reagents in either stoichiometric or catalytic quantities to yield beta-titanoxy radicals. This development has resulted in many new applications in natural product synthesis.