Recent progress in transition metal catalysed hydrofunctionalisation of less activated olefins

The electrophilic activation(C-H activation) of alkenes by transition metal catalysts is a fundamental step in a rapidly growing number of catalytic processes since it would provide simple, clean, and economic methods for making controlled and selectively functionalized organic moieties directly from simple olefins. Also catalytic activation of C-H bonds leading to useful organic reactions such as new C-C, C-N and C-O bond formation is of considerable interest for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries and remained a long-term challenge to chemists. A substantial progress has made in the last decade in this area. Contrary to traditional belief, it is nowadays possible to control the regiochemistry of various additions of nucleophiles to alkenes by the choice of transition metal catalysts. Atom economy, an inevitable factor of current research also can be accomplished in these reactions. Developments in this area of selective hydrofunctionalisation of alkenes by taking into consideration of the mechanistic aspects and the role of organometallic catalyst or active species formed during the reaction on the outcome of the reactions are reviewed. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.