Harnessing the chemistry of onium ylide intermediates generated from transition metal catalysis is a powerful strategy to convert simple precursors into complex scaffolds. Although the chemistry of onium ylides has been studied for over three decades, transformations of aziridinium ylides have only recently emerged as a versatile way to exploit the strain of these reactive intermediates to furnish densely functionalized N-heterocycles in a highly stereocontrolled manner. Here, we provide a short overview of the key concepts and recent developments in this area, with a focus on how mechanistic studies to delineate the factors controlling the reactivity of aziridinium ylides can stimulate fruitful future investigations.

利用过渡金属催化产生的叶立德中间体的化学性质，是将简单的前体转化为复杂的骨架的有效策略。尽管已经研究了鎓叶立德的化学超过三十年，但是直到最近才出现了叠氮基叠氮化钠的转变作为利用这些反应性中间体的菌株以高度立体可控的方式提供致密官能化的N-杂环的通用方法。在这里，我们简要概述了该领域的关键概念和最新发展，重点是机理研究如何描述控制叠氮基碘化物反应性的因素可以激发富有成果的未来研究。