Manganese Catalyzed Acceptorless Dehydrogenative Coupling Reactions

Acceptorless dehydrogenative coupling (ADC) has emerged as a powerful tool in the chemists' arsenal for the construction of various carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds. These protocols are highly atom economical and environmentally benign as they do not require pre-functionalized starting material and produce only dihydrogen (and water) as the by-product. This technique, coupled with Earths' abundant and less toxic manganese catalysis, can prove to be a vital strategy for the generation of molecular complexity from simple starting materials. Manganese catalyzed DHC has been of growing interest, and various low- and high-valent manganese catalysts have been developed. These catalysts were demonstrated to show excellent catalytic activity for the formation of carbon-carbon, carbon-heteroatom bonds, and cascade reactions. In this mini-review, we would like to highlight the recent progress that has been made in manganese catalyzed ADC reactions.