Primary amides: Sustainable weakly coordinating groups in transition metal-catalyzed C-H bond functionalization reactions

The directing groups assisted transition-metal catalyzed functionalization of unreactive C-H bond is considered as one of the valuable alternative synthetic tools to the conventional organic synthesis. The significant challenges in these fields are the requirements of two extra steps: introduction and removal of the directing group. Therefore, recently specific attention has been paid to utilize the useful functional motifs as desired directing groups for the site-selective activation of C-H bonds. Primary amides are considered as one of the fundamental functional groups that play an essential role in chemistry and biology. The presence of N and O atoms in amides makes them an ideal substrate for the directing group in transition-metal catalyzed C-H activation reactions. In this report, we give a brief overview of the recent development of primary amides as sustainable coordinating directing groups for the site-selective activation of ortho-C-H bonds of aromatic compounds followed by annulation reactions to make different molecular architectures. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.