The chemistry of hypervalent iodine reagents has emerged as an astonishing field in synthetic organic chemistry owing to its easy availability and benign environmental features. Hypervalent iodine reagents are mostly employed as alternatives in various metal-catalyzed reactions since they show similar reactivity to the transition metals, are less toxic, and less expensive. These reagents are often used as oxidants as well as electrophilic reagents in a number of organic transformations, such as oxidative functionalization, alpha C-H bond functionalization of carbonyl compounds, rearrangements, and cyclization reactions. Furthermore, the application of iodine(III) and iodine(V) reagents in various oxidative rearrangement processes generating a diverse array of molecules have been well explored. In this mini-review, the recent developments in the area of oxidative rearrangements, using hypervalent iodine reagents, have been covered.
Keywords: Cationic intermediates, hypervalent iodine reagents, oxidative rearrangements, ring contractions, ring expansions, ring rearrangements.