There is enormous amount of catalytic processes involving β-alkyl elimination that are synthetically useful. β-alkyl elimination in this case, however, is often considered as an alternative way of C–C bond cleavage while oxidative addition is the direct way. One of the examples is β-alkyl elimination of tert-alcoholates which can generate from either addition of an organometallic reagent or ligand exchange. The consequent organometallic species can undergo various downstream reactivities (reductive elimination, carbonyl insertion, etc.) to generate useful building blocks.
In addition to ring strain, aromaticity-driven β-Me elimination can be effectively employed to dealkylate steroid derivatives and some other cyclohexyl compounds.