Recent Advances in C-H Activation for the Synthesis of π-Extended Materials

The activation of typically unreactive aromatic C-H bonds by transition-metal catalysis has been receiving increased attention from the synthetic chemistry community in recent years. Advances in this area have enabled direct and site-selective modification of aromatic rings without the need for prefunctionalization. Accordingly, these techniques have found broad application in many fields, including the construction of extended p-systems for use in materials science. This review will discuss recent reports of C-H activation reactions applied toward the synthesis of p-extended functional materials.