C-H activation

摘要

The stability of the chemical bonds in saturated hydrocarbons makes them generally unreactive. But the invention of processes in which carbon-hydrogen (C-H) bonds in hydrocarbons can be activated is allowing chemists to exploit organic compounds in previously unimaginable ways. Why is C-H activation such big news? These reactions could revolutionize the chemical industry. Natural gas, for example, is best known as a fuel. But it is also a vast, low-cost feedstock of hydrocarbons that remains untapped as a raw material, simply because there has been no easy way of turning it into synthetically useful compounds.