Oxidative Coupling Reactions

The activation of C-H bonds is an important goal in chemical research. The direct substitution of hydrogen in C-H bonds by a desired fragment creates interesting synthetic alternatives to the more common multi-step approach of first introducing reactive functional groups. Instead, only one step is needed and very simple substrates can be used, as C-H bonds are ubiquitous in organic compounds. Oxidative coupling reactions can achieve such transformations by utilizing an oxidant and a catalyst.
In our group, we focus on the development of such reactions under mild and sustainable conditions, i.e., preferably by using elemental oxygen or simple peroxides as oxidant.