Synthesis, Spectroscopy, and Applications of Small Nitrile Oxides

Small covalent nitrile oxides are important transient species in organic synthesis and widely used especially for dipolar cycloaddition reactions. Due to their instability, their isolation and characterization are challenging. This review focuses on the generation, spectroscopy, structural properties, and synthetic application of small nitrile oxides, XCNO, where the X substituent group is smaller than five atoms, viz. X= hydrogen, halogen, pseudohalogen, alkyl, vinyl, ethynyl, or nitro.