Abstract
The formation of new bonds through C-C bond formation is of utmost importance in the synthesis of biologically privileged scaffolds and therapeutic drugs. In recent years, extensive efforts has been done to improve the intermolecular and intramolecular cross-coupling reaction in the simple, mild, efficient, economical, and eco-friendly manner via transition metal-free or organocatalytic direct C-H bond activation methodology. The traditional cross-coupling era continuously shifted to metal-free, organocatalytic, or metal-free cross-dehydrogenative coupling strategies to fast-track the reactions and diminishing the typical purification processes. Therefore, recent advances on the transition-metal-free, organocatalytic inter- and intra-molecular cross-coupling reactions have been introduced and discussed in the present article. In view of the reaction mechanism, organocatalytic cross-coupling reactions undergo through radical pathways, radical anionic intermediate which is completely different from traditional transition metal-catalyzed reactions. The exploration of transition metal-free organocatalyzed cross-couplings for direct C-H arylation of arenes has grown significantly, thereby, improving the formation of a wide range of aryl-aryl /arylheteroaryl/ heteroaryl-heteroaryl compounds. In the survey, transition metal-free/organocatalytic cross-coupling reactions showed a higher efficiency under simple and mild conditions than the comparative transition metal-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions. However, the higher regioselectivity and chemoselectivity are still far ahead in organocatalytic cross-coupling reactions due to their specific intrinsic mechanistic pathway. The tuning of many parameters such as oxidative states, ligands coordination, and counter anions, etc., which results in the specific direct C-H functionalization with flexible methodology are missing in the transition metal-free cross-coupling reactions. The highly systematic transition metal-catalyzed chemistry is still playing a dominant role over transition metal-free chemistry in organic synthesis. The organocatalyzed transition-metal-free conditions should be more efficient, chemoselective, and regioselective for further potential development and applications in organic synthesis. For the endless pursuit of sustainable chemistry and green chemistry, such transition-metal-free/organocatalytic reactions should be never ceased. Additional curious attention and interest have been developed so far, and chemists are showing their eagerness and talents to uncover the hidden treasure of green chemistry. In this review article, we highlighted the developments of various transition metal-free/organocatalytic C-H bond activation reactions which further encourages the advancement in the development of sustainable C-C coupling reactions and their further applications towards the synthesis of biologically privileged scaffolds and drug molecules.
Keywords: Organocatalysis, single electron transfer (SET), C-C bond formation, C-H bond activation, aryl-aryl, cross-coupling.
Graphical Abstract
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