Catalytic Methods for Aromatic C–H Amination: An Ideal Strategy for Nitrogen-Based Functional Molecules

Transformations of aromatic compounds into the corresponding amines, amides, and imides through carbon–hydrogen (C–H) bond functionalization represent one of the most step- and atom-economical methods for the synthesis of arylamine compounds. Because arylamines are privileged structures in materials- and biology-oriented functional molecules, the development of novel and efficient synthetic methods for aromatic C–H amination has received significant attention from a wide range of research fields including materials and pharmaceuticals. This review covers recent advances in catalytic aromatic C–H amination reactions. An array of recently developed new reactions are categorized by the nature of aromatic substrates: (1) 5-membered heteroarenes, (2) arenes having a nitrogen moiety in the molecule (intramolecular C–H amination), (3) arenes having a directing group, (4) simple arenes with excess amounts, and (5) simple arenes as the limiting reagents.