Structurally Defined Molecular Bismuth Compounds in CH Activation

Abstract

With their low costs, ready availability, and relatively low toxicity, bismuth and its compounds offer interesting properties for the use as reagents in synthetic chemistry. Furthermore, bismuth is a heavy metal with a large covalent and ionic radius and a range of accessible coordination geometries and oxidation states, which allows for careful complex design in order to address desired reactivity patterns. The scientific efforts toward the exploitation of bismuth compounds for unusual CH activation reactions are summarized in this contribution with a focus on the different types of synthetic strategies that have been elaborated.