Classic methods for the synthesis of allenes usually introduce only one functional group into products. In this review, we highlight the recent advances and perspectives in the synthesis of allenes by transition metal‐catalyzed 1,4‐functionalization of unactivated 1,3‐enynes.

A facile route toward the synthesis of isoquinolin-3-ones through a cooperative B(C6 F5 )3 - and Cp*Co(III) -catalyzed C-H bond activation of imines with diazo compounds is presented. The inclusion of a catalytic amount of B(C6 F5 )3 results in a highly efficient reaction, thus enabling unstable NH imines to serve as substrates.

A Mn -catalyzed regioselective C-H allenylation is reported that allows a broad range of 2-allenylindoles to be synthesized regioselectively on a gram scale under simple conditions. Notably, a highly efficient chirality transfer was observed (up to 93 % ee) in this transformation. This procedure was further found to allow, for the first time, the direct preparation of ketones by Mn -catalyzed C-H activation. Mechanistic investigations revealed that the precoordination of the oxygen atom to the manganese center as well as the congested tertiary carbon atom in the propargylic carbonates play a crucial role.

The first rhodium(I)-catalyzed enantioselective intermolecular Csp3 -H activation of various saturated aza-heterocycles including tetrahydroquinolines, piperidines, piperazines, azetidines, pyrrolidines, and azepanes is presented. The combination of a rhodium(I) precatalyst and a chiral monodentate phosphonite ligand is shown to be a powerful catalytic system to access a variety of important enantio-enriched heterocycles from simple starting materials. Notably, the Csp3 -H activation of tetrahydroquinolines is especially challenging due to the adjacent Csp2 -H bond. This redox-neutral methodology provides a new synthetic route to α-N-arylated heterocycles with high chemoselectivity and enantioselectivity up to 97 % ee.