Transition metal-catalyzed double C_vinyl-H bond activation: synthesis of conjugated dienes

Conjugated dienes have occupied a pivotal position in the field of synthetic organic chemistry and medicinal chemistry. They act as important synthons for the synthesis of various biologically important molecules and therefore, gain tremendous attention worldwide. A wide range of synthetic routes to access these versatile molecules have been developed in the past decades. Transition metal-catalyzed cross-dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) has emerged as one of the utmost front-line research areas in current synthetic organic chemistry due to its high atom economy, efficiency, and viability. In this review, an up-to-date summary including scope, limitations, mechanistic studies, stereoselectivities, and synthetic applications of transition metal-catalyzed double C_vinyl-H bond activation for the synthesis of conjugated dienes has been reported since 2013. The literature reports mentioned in this review have been classified into three different categories, i.e. (a) C_vinyl-C_vinyl bond formation via oxidative homo-coupling of terminal alkenes; (b) C_vinyl-C_vinyl bond formation via non-directed oxidative cross-coupling of linear/cyclic alkenes and terminal/internal alkenes, and (c) C_vinyl-C_vinyl bond formation via oxidative cross-coupling of directing group bearing alkenes and terminal/internal alkenes. Overall, this review aims to provide a concise overview of the current status of the considerable development in this field and is expected to stimulate further innovation and research in the future.