Transition Metal‐Catalysed Direct C−H Bond Functionalizations of 2‐Pyridone Beyond C3‐Selectivity

Abstract 2‐Pyridone is a ubiquitous motif in natural products, drug molecules, ligands in catalysis and organic materials. There is a necessity of direct step‐economic methods for the construction of 2‐pyridone based molecules. Strategically, the primary developments have led to the C3‐functionalizations due to the inherent reactivity of this center. Despite this, many elegant transition metal‐catalysed methods have been established to introduce versatile functional groups at the C4, C5 and C6‐position via direct C−H bond functionalizations. This minireview focuses on the categorized introduction of different functional groups at the 2‐pyridone scaffolds beyond C3‐selectivity and discusses substrate scope, limitations and plausible mechanistic details.