Maleimides in Directing‐Group‐Controlled Transition‐Metal‐Catalyzed Selective C−H Alkylation

Maleimides and succinimides are all vital scaffolds in biological fields and various natural products. Maleimide derivatives have been extensively used as coupling partners for various organic transformations, affording a broad array of important molecular architectures including succinimides. In the past decade, a variety of efficient chelation‐assisted strategies have been employed for the selective addition of C−H bonds to maleimides giving succinimides, which are also highly important building blocks in organic synthesis. This Review provides an overview of research progress relating to maleimides participated transition‐metal‐catalyzed group‐directed C−H alkylation from 2012 to 2021. Significant advances in this field were highlighted, diverse transition metal catalysts, organic substrates contained different directing groups, reaction mechanisms as well as synthetic applications are systematically discussed. In addition, the limitations and intractable issues need to be solved in the future are also pointed out. This Review summarizes significant advances in directing‐group‐controlled transition‐metal‐catalyzed selective C(sp2)−H/C(sp3)−H alkylation with maleimides. Catalysts, substrates, directing groups, reaction mechanisms, synthetic applications as well as limitations and intractable issues of this field were systematically discussed.