Recent Advances in Palladium-Catalyzed Oxidative Cyclizations

Heterocycles are very common substructures in a number of pharmaceuticals. Over the past several years, the use of palladium-catalyzed oxidative cyclization for heterocyclic synthesis has become much more prevalent. This review collects recent reports using palladium catalysis to synthesize a wide variety of heterocyclic scaffolds. Many of these reactions use oxygen as the terminal oxidant. Some salient mechanistic features are discussed.