The thriving chemistry of ketenimines.

Ketenimines are an important class of reactive species and useful synthetic intermediates. During the last two decades several practical and versatile approaches to ketenimines have been developed, leading to exhaustive investigations on ketenimine chemistry and the discovery of a variety of highly efficient reactions. Five types of reactions for ketenimines have been reported, including nucleophilic additions (ketenimines can be used as both electrophiles and nucleophiles), radical additions, cycloaddition reactions, electrocyclic ring closure reactions, and σ rearrangements. Furthermore, numerous complex organic compounds, particularly the biologically interesting heterocycles, have been constructed using these methodologies. The review of these accomplishments is presented here.