Nitrogen heterocycles are important structural subunits that occur widely in bioactive natural products, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, dyes, cosmetics, and functional materials. Considering the importance of these useful compounds in modern science, the synthesis of N-heterocycles and their derivatives has always been a hot topic in organic synthesis. Recently, arenediazonium salts which can be easily prepared from inexpensive and abundantly available anilines, have been used as versatile nitrogen sources in the field of nitrogen heterocycle synthetic chemistry due to their ready availability, rich reactivity, and diverse transformations. The aim of the present review is to summarize the recent advances in the synthesis of nitrogen heterocycles using arenediazonium salts as nitrogen sources in the past ten years. Hopefully, it can provide practical guidance for the readers who are interested in utilizing arenediazonium salts as building blocks in organic synthesis. For simplicity and clarity, the organization of this review is based on the number of N atoms in the ring of nitrogen heterocycle.

A general method for the synthesis of structurally diverse N-arylpyrazoles from readily available cyclopropanols and aryldiazonium salts is disclosed.

The synthesis of C3-substituted isoindolin-1-ones from oxazolines and cyclopropanols has been achieved with oxazoline as a bifunctional nucleophilic directing group. The reaction proceeds by the cleavage of three chemical bonds and allows the formation of three new chemical bonds, a C–N bond, a C–C bond, and a C–O bond, in a single step.

An efficient Rh(iii)-catalyzed C–H oxidative alkylation of N-aryl-7-azaindoles with cyclopropanols by merging tandem C–H and C–C cleavage was developed.

An efficient rhodium(III)-catalyzed direct C-H oxidative annulation of isoquinolones with allyl alcohols as C1 synthons has been successfully developed. This protocol enables the straightforward synthesis of structurally diverse isoindolo[2,1-b]isoquinolin-5(7H)-ones with...