Recent Advances in Directing Group-Induced C-H Activation Reactions

C-H bonds are widely existed in almost all the organic compounds. Transition-metal-catalyzed C-H functionalizations usually have high reaction efficiency and high atom-economy. However, traditional strategies based on such transition-metal catalyzed C-H activations generally result in poor selectivities, because C-H bonds in one molecule facilely display similar reactivity. It is difficult to be utilized in preparation of natural products, pharmaceuticals and biomolecules. However, directing group can induce the metal to activate proximal C-H bonds via cyclometallated intermediates, improve the regioselectivity of the transformations. Therefore, it is extremely significant to deveplop auxiliary-induced C-H bonds activations. The research progress of directing group-induced C-H activation reactions and mechanisms for recent ten years are sumarized.