The laboratory synthesis of complex organic molecules relies heavily on the introduction and manipulation of functional groups, such as carbon-oxygen or carbon-halogen bonds; carbon-hydrogen bonds are far less reactive and harder to functionalize selectively. The idea of C-H functionalization, in which C-H bonds are modified at will instead of the functional groups, represents a paradigm shift in the standard logic of organic synthesis. For this approach to be generally useful, effective strategies for site-selective C-H functionalization need to be developed. The most practical solutions to the site-selectivity problem rely on either intramolecular reactions or the use of directing groups within the substrate. A challenging, but potentially more flexible approach, would be to use catalyst control to determine which site in a particular substrate would be functionalized. Here we describe the use of dirhodium catalysts to achieve highly site-selective, diastereoselective and enantioselective C-H functionalization of n-alkanes and terminally substituted n-alkyl compounds. The reactions proceed in high yield, and functional groups such as halides, silanes and esters are compatible with this chemistry. These studies demonstrate that high site selectivity is possible in C-H functionalization reactions without the need for a directing or anchoring group present in the molecule.

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The synthesis of complex organic compounds usually relies on controlling the reactions of the functional groups. In recent years, it has become possible to carry out reactions directly on the C-H bonds, previously considered to be unreactive. One of the major challenges is to control the site-selectivity because most organic compounds have many similar C-H bonds. The most well developed procedures so far rely on the use of substrate control, in which the substrate has one inherently more reactive C-H bond or contains a directing group or the reaction is conducted intramolecularly so that a specific C-H bond is favoured. A more versatile but more challenging approach is to use catalysts to control which site in the substrate is functionalized. p450 enzymes exhibit C-H oxidation site-selectivity, in which the enzyme scaffold causes a specific C-H bond to be functionalized by placing it close to the iron-oxo haem complex. Several studies have aimed to emulate this enzymatic site-selectivity with designed transition-metal catalysts but it is difficult to achieve exceptionally high levels of site-selectivity. Recently, we reported a dirhodium catalyst for the site-selective functionalization of the most accessible non-activated (that is, not next to a functional group) secondary C-H bonds by means of rhodium-carbene-induced C-H insertion. Here we describe another dirhodium catalyst that has a very different reactivity profile. Instead of the secondary C-H bond, the new catalyst is capable of precise site-selectivity at the most accessible tertiary C-H bonds. Using this catalyst, we modify several natural products, including steroids and a vitamin E derivative, indicating the applicability of this method of synthesis to the late-stage functionalization of complex molecules. These studies show it is possible to achieve site-selectivity at different positions within a substrate simply by selecting the appropriate catalyst. We hope that this work will inspire the design of even more sophisticated catalysts, such that catalyst-controlled C-H functionalization becomes a broadly applied strategy for the synthesis of complex molecules.

C-H functionalization represents a promising approach for the synthesis of complex molecules. Instead of relying on modifying the functional groups present in a molecule, the synthetic sequence is achieved by carrying out selective reactions on the C-H bonds, which traditionally would have been considered to be the unreactive components of a molecule. A major challenge is to design catalysts to control both the site- and stereoselectivity of the C-H functionalization. We have been developing dirhodium catalysts with different selectivity profiles in C-H functionalization reactions with donor/acceptor carbenes as reactive intermediates. Here we describe a new dirhodium catalyst capable of the functionalization of non-activated primary C-H bonds with high levels of site selectivity and enantioselectivity.

Three types of dirhodium tetrakis­(tri­aryl­cy­clo­pro­pane­car­boxy­late) complexes were generated and shown to adopt disparate high-symmetry structures. These catalysts were evaluated in the intermolecular C–H functionalization of an array of terminally substituted n-alkanes and displayed various site-selectivity as a function of catalyst and substrate structure, which could be correlated through quantitative relationships.