Alkylation reactions represent an important organic transformation to form C-C bonds. In addition to conventional approaches with alkyl halides or sulfonates as alkylating agents, the use of unactivated olefins for alkylations has become attractive from both cost and sustainability viewpoints. This Review summarizes transition-metal-catalyzed alkylations of various carbon-hydrogen bonds (addition of C-H bonds across olefins) using regular olefins or 1,3-dienes up to May 2016. According to the mode of activation, the Review is divided into two sections: alkylation via C-H activation and alkylation via olefin activation.

Transition metal-catalyzed C-H functionalization has evolved into a prominent and indispensable tool in organic synthesis. While nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur-based functional groups (FGs) are widely employed as effective directing groups (DGs) to control the site-selectivity of C-H activation, the use of common FGs (e.g. ketone, alcohol and amine) as DGs has been continuously pursued. Ketones are an especially attractive choice of DGs and substrates due to their prevalence in various molecules and versatile reactivity as synthetic intermediates. Over the last two decades, transition metal-catalyzed C-H functionalization that is directed or mediated by ketones has experienced vigorous growth. This review summarizes these advancements into three major categories: use of ketone carbonyls as DGs, direct β-functionalization, and α-alkylation/alkenylation with unactivated olefins and alkynes. Each of these subsections is discussed from the perspective of strategic design and reaction discovery.

Arene diazonium salts are common, easily prepared and highly useful intermediates in organic synthesis due to their rich reactivity and diverse transformations. In this review, recent advances involving arene diazonium salts as starting materials or active intermediates for various synthetically useful applications are summarized.

Palladium/norbornene cooperative catalysis has emerged as a distinct approach to construct polyfunctionalized arenes from readily available starting materials. This Review provides a comprehensive overview of this field, including the early stoichiometric investigations, catalytic reaction developments, as well as the applications in the syntheses of bioactive compounds and polymers. The section of catalytic reactions is divided into two parts according to the reaction initiation mode: Pd(0)-initiated reactions and Pd(II)-initiated reactions.

Alkylation of carbonyl compounds is a commonly used carbon-carbon bond-forming reaction. However, the conventional enolate alkylation approach remains problematic due to lack of regioselectivity, risk of overalkylation, and the need for strongly basic conditions and expensive alkyl halide reagents. Here, we describe development of a ketone-alkylation strategy using simple olefins as the alkylating agents. This strategy employs a bifunctional catalyst comprising a secondary amine and a low-valent rhodium complex capable of activating ketones and olefins simultaneously. Both cyclic and acyclic ketones can be mono-α-alkylated with simple terminal olefins, such as ethylene, propylene, 1-hexene, and styrene, selectively at the less hindered site; a large number of functional groups are tolerated. The pH/redox neutral and byproduct-free nature of this dual-activation approach shows promise for large-scale syntheses.

The transition metal-catalyzed “cut and sew” transformation has recently emerged as a useful strategy for preparing complex molecular structures. After oxidative addition of a transition metal into a carbon–carbon bond, the resulting two carbon termini can be both functionalized in one step via the following migratory insertion and reductive elimination with unsaturated units, such as alkenes, alkynes, allenes, CO and polar multiple bonds. Three- or four-membered rings are often employed as reaction partners due to their high ring strains. The participation of non-strained structures generally relies on cleavage of a polar carbon–CN bond or assistance of a directing group.

A Pd and norbornene-catalyzed ortho-arene amination via Catellani-type C-H functionalization is reported. Aryl halides are used as substrates; N-benzoyloxyamines and isopropanol are employed as the amine source (oxidant) and reductant respectively. Examples are provided in 50-99% yields with high functional group tolerance. This method gives complementary site selectivity at the ortho- instead of ipso-position of aryl halides.

Herein we report a highly meta-selective C-H arylation using simple tertiary amines as the directing group. This method takes advantage of Pd/norbornene catalysis, offering a distinct strategy to control the site selectivity. The reaction was promoted by commercially available AsPh3 as the ligand and a unique "acetate cocktail". Aryl iodides with an ortho electron-withdrawing group were employed as the coupling partner. A wide range of functional groups, including some heteroarenes, are tolerated under the reaction conditions. In addition, the amine directing group can be easily installed and transformed to other common versatile functional groups. We expect this C-H functionalization mode to have broad implications for developing other meta-selective transformations beyond this work.