Intramolecular aminopalladation of alkenes as a key step to pyrrolidines and related heterocycles.

Palladium catalysis for the intramolecular amination of alkenes is a powerful approach in heterocycle synthesis. The initial common step in this approach consists of an aminopalladation reaction. This tutorial review describes the synthesis of 2-amino alkyl-palladium compounds and renders special attention on the subsequent manipulation of the alkyl-palladium group. By carefully choosing the appropriate conditions, a wide variety of different heterocyclic structures are accessible which arise from reactions such as hydroamination, aza-Heck coupling, aminocarbonylation or oxidative processes such as aza-Wacker reaction and 1,2-difunctionalization.