Organic azides have found wide application in various fields of science and technology. This review summarizes recently developed approaches to the direct, one‐step synthesis of diverse organic azides utilizing hypervalent iodine reagents. The first part of review deals with the azidation using unstable azidoiodinanes generated in situ from common hypervalent iodine reagents (such as diacetoxyiodobenzene or iodosylbenzene) and a source of azide anion (TMSN3 or NaN3). The second part of review is dedicated to the application of stable azidobenziodoxoles as useful azidating reagents that allow selective direct azidation of C−H bonds or double carbon‐carbon bonds under mild reaction conditions. The use of azidobenziodoxoles eliminates the main disadvantages of the traditional approaches to organic azides, such as the need in pre‐functionalization of organic substrates and harsh reaction conditions. Synthetic application of azidobenziodoxoles made possible direct selective azidation of a plethora of organic substrates including complex molecules at the late synthetic stage.

Hypervalent iodine reagents are in high current demand due to their exceptional reactivity in oxidative transformations, as well as in diverse umpolung functionalization reactions. Cyclic hypervalent iodine compounds, known under the general name of benziodoxoles, possess improved thermal stability and synthetic versatility in comparison with their acyclic analogs. Aryl-, alkenyl-, and alkynylbenziodoxoles have recently received wide synthetic applications as efficient reagents for direct arylation, alkenylation, and alkynylation under mild reaction conditions, including transition metal-free conditions as well as photoredox and transition metal catalysis. Using these reagents, a plethora of valuable, hard-to-reach, and structurally diverse complex products can be synthesized by convenient procedures. The review covers the main aspects of the chemistry of benziodoxole-based aryl-, alkynyl-, and alkenyl- transfer reagents, including preparation and synthetic applications.

The selective preparation of 2-iodoxybenzenesulfonic acid (IBS, as potassium or sodium salts) by oxidation of sodium 2-iodobenzenesulfonate with Oxone or sodium periodate in water is reported. The single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis reveals a complex polymeric structure consisting of three units of IBS as potassium salt and one unit of 2-iodoxybenzenesulfonic acid linked together by relatively strong I=O···I intermolecular interactions. Furthermore, a new method for the preparation of the reduced form of IBS, 2-iodosylbenzenesulfonic acid, by using periodic acid as an oxidant, has been developed. It has been demonstrated that the oxidation of free 2-iodobenzenesulfonic acid under acidic conditions affords an iodine(III) heterocycle (2-iodosylbenzenesulfonic acid), while the oxidation of sodium 2-iodobenzenesulfonate in neutral aqueous solution gives the iodine(V) products.

Potassium 4-iodylbenzenesulfonate (PIBS) is a thermally stable and water soluble hypervalent iodine oxidant particularly useful as a recyclable reagent for oxidative iodination of alkenes, alkynes and ketones. This reagent can be effectively recovered from the reaction mixture by treatment of the aqueous layer with Oxone at 60 o C followed by filtration of the precipitate.

The intramolecular oxidative cycloaddition reaction of alkyne- or alkene-tethered aldoximes was catalyzed efficiently by hypervalent iodine(III) species to afford the corresponding polycyclic isoxazole derivatives in up to a 94% yield. The structure of the prepared products was confirmed by various methods, including X-ray crystallography. Mechanistic study demonstrated the crucial role of hydroxy(aryl)iodonium tosylate as a precatalyst, which is generated from 2-iodobenzoic acid and m-chloroperoxybenzoic acid in the presence of a catalytic amount of p-toluenesulfonic acid.