β -Nitroacrylates as an Emerging, Versatile Class of Functionalized Nitroalkenes for the Synthesis of a Variety of Chemicals

Modern organic synthesis requires easily obtainable synthetic building blocks that can be manipulated without the need of severe reaction conditions and that show high chemical versatility so that they can be employed in diverse synthetic processes. β- Nitroacrylates are a class of electron-poor alkenes having two electron-withdrawing groups in α- and β-positions. This peculiarity makes their chemical behaviour more interesting with respect to the classical conjugated nitroalkenes and, in the last few years, there has been a growing interest in the chemistry of these molecules. The aim of this report is to present, mainly, the recent synthetic applications of β- nitroacrylates, as well as the principal procedures for their preparations.