Tandem CH/CO Activation as New Paradigm for Molecular Synthesis

Abstract Over the last two decades, phenolic or alcoholic derivatives have been slowly evolved as conceivable replacements to the ubiquitous aryl halides (I, Br, and Cl) in the carbon–carbon cross‐coupling reaction. Nonetheless, there is a daunting challenge in the adoption of CO activation as the toolkit in sustainable molecular synthesis, owing to the high dissociation energy to break the CO bond, thus limiting the scope of reactions for broader application. Therefore, cross‐coupling reaction by incorporating CH bond activation into CO manifold might enrich the reactivity and expand the chemical space for more complex molecule. This article will discuss the reaction methodology and mechanism concerning about nickel and palladium‐promoted tandem CH/CO bond activation for the cross‐coupling reaction.