Use of benzynes for the synthesis of heterocycles.

About two decades after Kobayashi's discovery in 1983 of a very mild way of generating highly reactive aryne intermediates, the synthetic community embraced o-(trimethylsilyl)aryl triflates as convenient and versatile aryne precursors for the synthesis of carbocycles and heterocycles, as well as natural products and pharmaceutically promising drug candidates. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the construction of heterocycles using Kobayashi's silylaryl triflate aryne precursors. It is organized according to the type of heterocycle generated.