Hasret Can Gülen

Introduction Plastics span a broad family of materials, with polyolefins, such as polyethylene and polypropylene, representing a major portion used in everyday life. In 2019, the annual production of plastic reached 460 million metric tons, and is expected to more than double, reaching more than 1014 million metric tons, by 2060.[1] However, the end-of-life management of these polyolefins still constitutes an important challenge.

Introduction Click to copy section linkSection link copied! The direct functionalization of distal C–H bond is highly challenging, but of great practical relevance in molecular chemistry. (1−12) During the past decade, meta-C(sp2)–H functionalizations have been elegantly achieved by the use of templates, (13−19) transient mediators, (20−29) non-covalent interactions, (30−33) or steric control. (34−37) These approaches mainly proceed via two-electron manifolds under palladium or iridium catalysis.

Introduction The past decade has witnessed major advances in the remote arene C−H functionalization.1 Main advances in the field have been realized by template,2 non-covalent interactions,3 transient mediators,4 traceless directing groups,5 σ-bond activation6 or steric effects,7 with key contributions by, among others, Yu, Maiti, Phipps, Dong, Ackermann, Frost, Greaney and Hartwig.