C–H bond breakers seek smarter tools

Abstract

C–H activation reactions take bonds found in practically all organic compounds and use them as handles to install new functional groups. These methods can allow chemists to zero in on specific C–H bonds in a sea of look-alikes, enabling them to build complex compounds such as pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. The initial reactivity was discovered decades ago, but only in the past 10 years have organic chemists expanded the technique into a popular synthetic method. However, chemists still can’t access all the types of C–H bonds they want to, especially hard-to-reach bonds . Creating a toolbox to target any C–H bond that chemists want to modify may require seeking out new chemistries or reexamining known techniques. Meanwhile, industrial and medicinal chemists are exploring how to scale up C–H activation for use outside academic labs. In graduate school, John F. Hartwig decided to study something that many at the time thought was