Recent developments in catalytic cross-couplings with unsaturated carboxylates

Catalytic cross-couplings through C-O bond-cleavage of unsaturated carboxylates with organometallics have emerged as a powerful method for sustainable syntheses. Over the last decade, remarkable achievements have been made with the development of transition metal-catalyzed cross-couplings with the readily available phenol and enol derivatives as suitable coupling electrophiles beyond unsaturated halides. Therefore, this perspective describes the recent advances in the field of transition metal-catalyzed C-O bond activation of unsaturated carboxylates with organometallics, including B, Mg, Zn, Al, and Si reagents, until May 2021.