Benziodoxole-based hypervalent iodine reagents for atom-transfer reactions

In the last decades, hypervalent iodine reagents have raised from chemical curiosities to mainstream reagents in organic synthesis. The use of benziodoxole-derived reagents has been especially successful in oxidation methods, whereas non-cyclic iodinanes have been used both for oxidation and atom-transfer reactions. On the other hand, the exceptional properties of benziodoxole reagents for atom-transfer reactions have only started to attract the attention of the synthetic community more recently. In this review, progress in the use of these compounds for C–X and C–C bond formations will be presented. In particular, recent breakthroughs in trifluoromethylation and alkynylation reactions have been realized since 2006 based on benziodoxole-derived reagents and these results are the main focus of this article.