C–H activation has surfaced as an increasingly powerful tool for molecular sciences, with notable applications to material sciences, crop protection, drug discovery, and pharmaceutical industries, among others. Despite major advances, the vast majority of these C–H functionalizations required precious 4d or 5d transition metal catalysts. Given the cost-effective and sustainable nature of earth-abundant first row transition metals, the development of less toxic, inexpensive 3d metal catalysts for C–H activation has gained considerable recent momentum as a significantly more environmentally-benign and economically-attractive alternative. Herein, we provide a comprehensive overview on first row transition metal catalysts for C–H activation until summer 2018.

3d Transition Metals for C-H Activation.

The present review is devoted to summarizing the recent advances (2015-2017) in the field of metal-catalysed group-directed C-H functionalisation In order to clearly showcase the molecular diversity that can now be accessed by means of directed C-H functionalisation, the whole is organized following the directing groups installed on a substrate Its aim is to be a comprehensive reference work, where a specific directing group can be easily found, together with the transformations which have been carried out with it Hence, the primary format of this review is schemes accompanied with a concise explanatory text, in which the directing groups are ordered in sections according to their chemical structure The schemes feature typical substrates used, the products obtained as well as the required reaction conditions Importantly, each example is commented on with respect to the most important positive features and drawbacks, on aspects such as selectivity, substrate scope, reaction conditions, directing group removal, and greenness The targeted readership are both experts in the field of C-H functionalisation chemistry (to provide a comprehensive overview of the progress made in the last years) and, even more so, all organic chemists who want to introduce the C-H functionalisation way of thinking for a design of straightforward, efficient and step-economic synthetic routes towards molecules of interest to them Accordingly, this review should be of particular interest also for scientists from industrial R&D sector Hence, the overall goal of this review is to promote the application of C-H functionalisation reactions outside the research groups dedicated to method development and establishing it as a valuable reaction archetype in contemporary R&D, comparable to the role cross-coupling reactions play to date

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A comprehensive overview of directing groups applied in metal-catalysed C-H functionalisation chemistry.

During the past decades, synthetic organic chemistry discovered that directing group assisted C–H activation is a key tool for the expedient and siteselective construction of C–C bonds. Among the v...

Bidentate Directing Groups: An Efficient Tool in C-H Bond Functionalization Chemistry for the Expedient Construction of C-C Bonds.

The semiempirical tight-binding based quantum chemistry method GFN2-xTB is used in the framework of meta-dynamics (MTD) to globally explore chemical compound, conformer, and reaction space. The biasing potential given as a sum of Gaussian functions is expressed with the root-mean-square-deviation (RMSD) in Cartesian space as a metric for the collective variables. This choice makes the approach robust and generally applicable to three common problems (i.e., conformer search, chemical reaction space exploration in a virtual nanoreactor, and for guessing reaction paths). Because of the inherent locality of the atomic RMSD, functional group or fragment selective treatments are possible facilitating the investigation of catalytic processes where, for example, only the substrate is thermally activated. Due to the approximate character of the GFN2-xTB method, the resulting structure ensembles require further refinement with more sophisticated, for example, density functional or wave function theory methods. However, the approach is extremely efficient running routinely on common laptop computers in minutes to hours of computation time even for realistically sized molecules with a few hundred atoms. Furthermore, the underlying potential energy surface for molecules containing almost all elements ( Z = 1-86) is globally consistent including the covalent dissociation process and electronically complicated situations in, for example, transition metal systems. As examples, thermal decomposition, ethyne oligomerization, the oxidation of hydrocarbons (by oxygen and a P450 enzyme model), a Miller-Urey model system, a thermally forbidden dimerization, and a multistep intramolecular cyclization reaction are shown. For typical conformational search problems of organic drug molecules, the new MTD(RMSD) algorithm yields lower energy structures and more complete conformer ensembles at reduced computational effort compared with its already well performing predecessor.

Exploration of Chemical Compound, Conformer, and Reaction Space with Meta-Dynamics Simulations Based on Tight-Binding Quantum Chemical Calculations.

Recent advances in transition metal-catalyzed C–H bond functionalization have profoundly impacted synthetic strategy Since organic substrates typically contain several chemically distinct C–H bonds, controlling the regioselectivity of C–H bond functionalization is imperative to harness its full potential Moreover, the ability to alter reaction pathways to selectively functionalize different C–H bonds in a substrate represents a greater opportunity and challenge The choice of catalysts, ligands, solvents, and even more subtle variations of the reaction conditions have been shown to allow the formation of regioisomeric C–H functionalization products starting from the same precursors This review describes recent advances in transition metal-catalyzed divergent C–H bond functionalization that highlight its potential in organic synthesis

Transition metal-catalyzed site- and regio-divergent C–H bond functionalization

Molecular syntheses largely rely on time- and labour-intensive prefunctionalization strategies. In contrast, C-H activation represents an increasingly powerful approach that avoids lengthy syntheses of prefunctionalized substrates, with great potential for drug discovery, the pharmaceutical industry, material sciences, and crop protection, among others. The enantioselective functionalization of omnipresent C-H bonds has emerged as a transformative tool for the step- and atom-economical generation of chiral molecular complexity. However, this rapidly growing research area remains dominated by noble transition metals, prominently featuring toxic palladium, iridium and rhodium catalysts. Indeed, despite significant achievements, the use of inexpensive and sustainable 3d metals in asymmetric C-H activations is still clearly in its infancy. Herein, we discuss the remarkable recent progress in enantioselective transformations via organometallic C-H activation by 3d base metals up to April 2019.

Enantioselective C-H Activation with Earth-Abundant 3d Transition Metals.

A unique C–H allylation has been discovered with unbiased aliphatic olefins. An intimate M–L affiliation between a high-valent cobalt catalyst and amino-quinoline derived benzamides has been found to be crucial for this unprecedented selectivity. An exemplary set of aliphatic olefins, high yields coupled with excellent regio- and stereoselectivity, and wide functional group tolerances are noteworthy. In addition, a catalytically competent organometallic Co(III) species has been identified through X-ray crystallography. This study is expected to facilitate new synthetic designs toward unconventional allylic selectivity with aliphatic olefins.

Switch to Allylic Selectivity in Cobalt-Catalyzed Dehydrogenative Heck Reactions with Unbiased Aliphatic Olefins

C–F/C–H functionalizations proved to be viable within a versatile manganese(I) catalysis manifold. Thus, a wealth of fluorinated alkenes were employed in C–F/C–H functionalizations through facile C–H activation. The robust nature of the manganese(I) catalysis regime was among others reflected by the first C–F/C–H activation with perfluoroalkenes as well as racemization-free C–H functionalizations on imines, amino acids, and peptides.

C–F/C–H Functionalization by Manganese(I) Catalysis: Expedient (Per)Fluoro-Allylations and Alkenylations

Asymmetric pallada-electrocatalyzed C-H olefinations were achieved through the synergistic cooperation with transient directing groups. The electrochemical, atroposelective C-H activations were realized with high position-, diastereo-, and enantio-control under mild reaction conditions to obtain highly enantiomerically-enriched biaryls and fluorinated N-C axially chiral scaffolds. Our strategy provided expedient access to, among others, novel chiral BINOLs, dicarboxylic acids and helicenes of value to asymmetric catalysis. Mechanistic studies by experiments and computation provided key insights into the catalyst's mode of action.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/anie.202003826

Enantioselective Pallada-Electrocatalyzed C-H Activation by Transient Directing Groups: Expedient Access to Helicenes.

The enantioselective cobalt(III)-catalyzed C-H alkylation was achieved through the design of a novel chiral acid. The cobalt(III)-catalyzed enantioselective C-H activation was characterized by high position-, regio- and enantio-control under exceedingly mild reaction conditions. Thereby, the robust cooperative cobalt(III) catalysis proved tolerant of valuable electrophilic functional groups, including hydroxyl, bromo, and iodo substituents. Mechanistic studies revealed a considerable additive effect on kinetics and on a negative non-linear-effect.

Uttam Dhawa

Papers

Enantioselective C-H Activation with Earth-Abundant 3d Transition Metals.

Switch to Allylic Selectivity in Cobalt-Catalyzed Dehydrogenative Heck Reactions with Unbiased Aliphatic Olefins

C–F/C–H Functionalization by Manganese(I) Catalysis: Expedient (Per)Fluoro-Allylations and Alkenylations

Enantioselective Pallada-Electrocatalyzed C-H Activation by Transient Directing Groups: Expedient Access to Helicenes.

Enantioselective Cobalt(III)-Catalyzed C−H Activation Enabled by Chiral Carboxylic Acid Cooperation