Discovery of new effective methods for the synthesis of aziridines, epoxides
and oxaziridines, as well as development of novel transformations of these
heterocycles, has been an extremely active area of research in recent years. In just two
or three steps, these small heterocycles can be converted into a vast array of four-toseven-
membered rings and open-chain compounds. The diversity of possible
transformations transpired in a torrent of publications, with hundreds of papers
published every year. This review covers recent (2007 to the end of 2017) literature on
one-pot transformations of aziridines, epoxides, and oxaziridines. Within this,
deceptively narrow, topic there is a great number of synthetically useful or
mechanistically interesting reactions leading to diverse families of N,O,S-heterocycles,
including thiiranes, oxetanes, azetidines, azetidinones, furans, 1,3-oxazolines, 1,3-
oxazolidines, 1,3-oxazolidin-2-ones, 1,3-thiazolidines, imidazoles, 1,2,3-triazoles,
pyrans, 1,4-oxazines (morpholines), azepanes, oxazepanes etc. The review aims to give
the readers an insight into the great practical utility of epoxides, aziridines and
oxaziridines. It presents the most modern methods for their expedited conversion into a
broad range of heterocycles.
Keywords: Aziridines, Azetidines, Azetidinones, Azepanes, Cycloaddition,
Epoxides, Furans, Imidazoles, Isomerization, N, O, S-heterocycles, Oxaziridines,
Oxetanes, Oxazepanes, 1, 3-Oxazolines, 1, 3-Oxazolidines, 1, 3-Oxazolidin-2-ones,
1, 4-Oxazines (morpholines), Pyrans, Pyrrolidines, Pyrroles, Rearrangement, Ring
expansion, Ring-opening reaction, Thiiranes, Transition-metal catalysis, 1, 3-
Thiazolidines, 1, 2, 3-Triazoles.
