Oxidation-Induced C—H Functionalization: A Formal Way for C—H Activation^†

Cross-coupling reactions have developed widely and provided a powerful means to synthesize a variety of compounds in each chemical field. The compounds which have C—H bonds are widespread in fossil fuels, chemical raw materials, biologically active molecules, etc. Using these readily- available substances as substrates is high atom- and step-economy for cross-coupling reactions. Over the past decades, our research group focused on finding and developing new strategies for C—H functionalization. Compared with classical C—H activation methods, for example, C—H bonds are deprotonated by strong base or converted into C—M bonds, oxidation-induced C—H functionalization would be another pathway for C—H bond activation. This perspective shows a brief introduction of our recent works in this oxidation-induced C—H functionalization. We categorized this approach of these C—H bond activations by the key intermediates, radical cations, radicals and cations.