Ethylene as a synthon in carbonylative synthesis

We summarized and discussed the main achievements on transitional metal-catalyzed carbonylative transformations of ethylene in this review. Various bulk compounds and also fine chemicals, including propanol, alkyl propanoates, succinic diesters, and many multifunctionalized C3 compounds, can be produced by ethylene hydroformylation, hydroesterification, hydrocarboxylation, hydroaminocarbonylation, dicarbonylation, and multicomponent carbonylation reactions.