Catalytic Methods for Aromatic C-H Amination: An Ideal Strategy for Nitrogen-Based Functional Molecules

Transformations of aromatic compounds into the corresponding amines, amides, and imides through carbon-hydrogen (C-H) bond functionalization represent one of the most step- and atom-economical methods for the synthesis of arylamine compounds. Because arylamines are privileged structures in materials- and biology-oriented functional molecules, the development of novel and efficient synthetic methods for aromatic C-H amination has received significant attention from a wide range of research fields including materials and pharmaceuticals. This review covers recent advances in catalytic aromatic C-H amination reactions. An array of recently developed new reactions are categorized by the nature of aromatic substrates: (1) 5-membered heteroarenes, (2) arenes having a nitrogen moiety in the molecule (intramolecular C-H amination), (3) arenes having a directing group, (4) simple arenes with excess amounts, and (5) simple arenes as the limiting reagents.