The progression of synthetic strategies to assemble titanium complexes bearing the terminal imide group.

The synthesis of terminal titanium imides is described in this account. The incorporation of this functional group has evolved from more simplistic approaches to more complex or unusual methods. Past and current synthetic strategies to incorporate the terminal imide functionality are explained with particular emphasis on low-coordinate titanium environments bearing this ubiquitous but vital type of motif. More recently, the imide functionality has demonstrated to be a key intermediate for modeling important industrial processes such as the hydrodenitrogenation of crude oil.