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Research and industrial interest in radical C-H activation/radical cross-coupling chemistry has continuously grown over the past few decades. These reactions offer fascinating and unconventional approaches toward connecting molecular fragments with high atom- and step-economy that are often complementary to traditional methods. Success in this area of research was made possible through the development of photocatalysis and first-row transition metal catalysis along with the use of peroxides as radical initiators. This Review provides a brief and concise overview of the current status and latest methodologies using radicals or radical cations as key intermediates produced via radical C-H activation. This Review includes radical addition, radical cascade cyclization, radical/radical cross-coupling, coupling of radicals with M-R groups, and coupling of radical cations with nucleophiles (Nu).
Catalytic C-H bond activation, which was an elusive subject of chemical research until the 1990s, has now become a standard synthetic method for the formation of new C-C and C-heteroatom bonds. The synthetic potential of C-H activation was first described for ruthenium catalysis and is now widely exploited by the use of various precious metals. Driven by the increasing interest in chemical utilization of ubiquitous metals that are abundant and nontoxic, iron catalysis has become a rapidly growing area of research, and iron-catalyzed C-H activation has been most actively explored in recent years. In this review, we summarize the development of stoichiometric C-H activation, which has a long history, and catalytic C-H functionalization, which emerged about 10 years ago. We focus in this review on reactions that take place via reactive organoiron intermediates, and we excluded those that use iron as a Lewis acid or radical initiator. The contents of this review are categorized by the type of C-H bond cleaved and the type of bond formed thereafter, and it covers the reactions of simple substrates and substrates possessing a directing group that anchors the catalyst to the substrate, providing an overview of iron-mediated and iron-catalyzed C-H activation reported in the literature by October 2016.
CONSPECTUS: Oxidative cross-coupling reactions between two nucleophiles are a powerful synthetic strategy to synthesize various kinds of functional molecules. Along with the development of transition-metal-catalyzed oxidative cross-coupling reactions, chemists are applying more and more first-row transition metal salts (Fe, Co, etc.) as catalysts. Since first-row transition metals often can go through multiple chemical valence changes, those oxidative cross-couplings can involve single electron transfer processes. In the meantime, chemists have developed diverse mechanistic hypotheses of these types of reactions. However, none of these hypotheses have led to conclusive reaction pathways until now. From studying both our own work and that of others in this field, we believe that radical oxidative cross-coupling reactions can be classified into four models based on the final bond formations. In this Account, we categorize and summarize these models. In model I, one of the starting nucleophiles initially loses one electron to generate its corresponding radical under oxidative conditions. Then, bond formations between this radical and another nucleophile create a new radical, [Nu(1)-Nu(2)](•), followed by a further radical oxidation step to generate the cross-coupling product. The radical oxidative alkenylation with olefin, radical oxidative arylative-annulation, and radical oxidative amidation are examples of this model. In model II, one of the starting nucleophiles loses its two electrons via two steps of single-electron-transfer to generate an electrophilic intermediate, followed by a direct bond formation with the other nucleophile. For example, the oxidative C-O coupling of benzylic sp(3) C-H bonds with carboxylic acids and oxidative C-N coupling of aldehydes with amides are members of this model group. For model III, both nucleophiles are oxidized to their corresponding radicals. Then, the radicals combine to form the final coupling product. The dioxygen-involved radical oxidative cross-couplings between sulfinic acids and olefins or alkynes belong to this bond formation model. Lastly, in model IV, one nucleophile loses two electrons to generate an electrophilic intermediate, while the other nucleophile loses one electron to generate a radical. Then, a bond forms between the cation and the radical to generate a cationic radical, followed by a one-electron reduction to afford the final coupling product. The oxidative coupling between arylboronic acids and simple ethers was classified in this model. At the current stage, there are only a few examples presented for models III and IV, but they represent two types of potentially important transformations. More and more examples of these two models will be developed in the future.
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