A Comparison of Several Modern Alkylating Agents

This review covers the application, mechanisms and limitations of simple alkylating agents that can be used for the conversion of carboxylic acids to esters, phenols to aryl ethers, enols to enol ethers and thiols to thioethers. Specific recent examples are provided to show the selectivity (regio or chemo) in these transformations. It is important to have access to these methods when considering alternatives to classical alkylating techniques.