Recent Advances in the Catalytic Dearomatization of Naphthols

Abstract

The catalytic dearomatization of naphthols offers a unique platform to rapidly access structurally complex and densely functionalized molecular architectures. Thermodynamically more favorable, with respect to the analogous phenol‐variant, the transformation of the phenolic ring into the corresponding naphthalenone (cited here as naphthyl dearomatization) has faced a considerable amount of attention over the past decade with constant improvements towards stereocontrol. A collection of the most representative and recent catalytic variants involving carbon–carbon as well as carbon–heteroatom bond forming events are presented in this Minireview article.