N-Methoxybenzamide: A Versatile Directing Group for Palladium-, Rhodium- and Ruthenium-Catalyzed C-H Bond Activations

The C-H bond activation reactions catalyzed by a transition metal have always been a topic of intense research. Although the incorporation or removal of a directing group plays an essential role in C-H activation reactions, it also imposes several limitations during the reaction. To minimize such limitations, strategies like the use of weakly coordinating directing groups and the transient directing groups have been employed. The present review gives a survey of recent progress on the widely applicable N-methoxyamide scaffold as a directing group for numerous metal-catalyzed C-H functionalization reactions. The efficiency of this directing group towards a wide range of substrates and chemical transformations carried out under mild reaction conditions has also been discussed herein.