Acylsilanes as Weakly Coordinating Directing Groups for Metal-Catalyzed C–H Functionalization

The capacity to engage acylsilanes as carbene precursors, electrophiles, and acyl radical precursors offers significant synthetic potential. However, harnessing the versatility of acylsilanes in chemical synthesis has been somewhat hampered to date by a lack of available methods to access complex scaffolds containing the acylsilane functionality. To address this challenge, catalytic synthetic methods that employ acylsilanes as weakly coordinating directing groups to direct the site-selective functionalization of proximal C–H bonds have recently been explored. Herein we review the discoveries in metal-catalyzed acylsilane-directed C–H functionalization strategies over the past decade that enable access to more complex acylsilane derivatives. Subsequent photochemical transformations of some of the acylsilane derivatives accessed via C–H functionalization are also presented to further showcase the unique reactivity profile of acylsilanes.