Employing phenols
and phenol derivatives as electrophiles for cross-coupling
reactions has numerous advantages over commonly used aryl halides
in terms of environmental-friendliness and sustainability. In the
early stage of discovering such transformations, most efforts have
been devoted to utilizing highly activated sulfonate types of phenol
derivatives (e.g., OTf, OTs, etc.), which have similar reactivities
to the corresponding aryl halides. However, a continuing scientific
challenge is how to achieve the direct C–O functionalizations
of relatively less-activated phenol derivatives more efficiently.
In this review, we will focus on the recent updates on the C–O
functionalizations of less-activated phenol derivatives, from aryl
carboxylates (e.g., pivalates, acetates, etc.), aryl carbamates and
carbonates, to aryl ethers (anisoles, diaryl ethers, aryl pyridyl
ethers, aryl silyl ethers), to phenolate salts, and ultimately to
simply unprotected phenols, sorted by the types of bond formations.
Both transition-metal-catalyzed and transition-metal-free protocols
will be covered and discussed in detail. Instead, the C–O functionalizations
of aryl sulfonates will not be covered extensively unless they are
closely related, due to their high reactivity. Since aryl ethers and
phenols represent the main linkages or units in lignin biomass, the
successes of such transformations will potentially make major contributions
to the direct lignin biomass upgrading and depolymerization.