C–H Activation Catalyzed by Earth-Abundant Metals

This account describes our quest for controlling the reactivity of organoiron species, and developing an iron catalyst that can efficiently activate a C–H bond of a substrate possessing a directing group, followed by reaction with nucleophiles (magnesium, zinc, boron, or aluminum reagents), electrophiles (alkyl halides, alkanol derivatives, allyl ethers, alkenes, alkynes, chloroamines), or with another C–H substrate (heteroarenes or electron-deficient arenes). Our forays into C–H activation using cobalt, manganese, and chromium catalysis are also briefly discussed.