1. For some recent reviews, see: (a) Schipper D J and Fagnou K 2011 Direct arylation as a synthetic tool for the synthesis of thiophene-based organic electronic materials Chem. Mater. 23 1594; (b) Ackermann L 2011 Carboxylate-assisted transition-metal-catalyzed C−H bond functionalizations: Mechanism and scope Chem. Rev. 111 1315; (c) McMurray L, O’Hara F and Gaunt M J 2011 Recent developments in natural product synthesis using metal-catalysed C–H bond functionalization Chem. Soc. Rev. 40 1885; (d) Engle K M, Mei T S, Wasa M and Yu J Q 2012 Weak coordination as a powerful means for developing broadly useful C–H functionalization reactions Acc. Chem. Res. 45 788; (e) Wencel-Delord J, Dröge T, Liu F and Glorius F 2011 Towards mild metal-catalyzed C–H bond activation Chem. Soc. Rev. 40 4740; (f) Brückl T, Baxter R D, Ishihara Y and Baran P S 2012 Innate and guided C–H Functionalization logic Acc. Chem. Res. 45 826; (g) Yamaguchi J, Yamaguchi A D and Itami K 2012 C-H Bond functionalization: emerging synthetic tools for natural products and pharmaceuticals Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 51 8960; (h) Arockiam P B, Bruneau C and Dixneuf P H 2012 Ruthenium(II)-catalyzed C–H bond activation and functionalization Chem. Rev. 112 5879; (i) Rouquet G and Chatani N 2013 catalytic functionalization of C(sp2)-H and C(sp3)-H Bonds by using bidentate directing groups Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 52 11726; (j) Ackermann L 2014 Carboxylate-assisted ruthenium-catalyzed alkyne annulations by C–H/Het–H bond functionalizations Acc. Chem. Res. 47 281; (k) Zhang X-S, Chen K and Shi Z-J 2014 Transition metal-catalyzed direct nucleophilic addition of C–H bonds to carbon-heteroatom double bonds Chem. Sci. 5 2146; (l) Segawa Y, Maekawa T and Itami K 2015 Synthesis of extended π-systems through C–H activation Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 54 66; (m) Ye B and Cramer N 2015 Chiral cyclopentadienyls: Enabling ligands for asymmetric Rh(III)-catalyzed C–H functionalizations Acc. Chem. Res. 48 1308; (n) Gensch T, Hopkinson M N, Glorius F and Wencel-Delord J 2016 Mild metal-catalyzed C–H activation: examples and concepts Chem. Soc. Rev. 45 2900; (o) Iwasaki M and Nishihara Y 2016 Palladium-catalysed direct thiolation and selenation of aryl C–H bonds assisted by directing groups Dalton Trans. 45 15278
2. Thuillier A and Metzner P 1994 Sulfur reagents in organic synthesis (New York: Academic Press)
3. For metal-catalyzed cross-coupling approach, see: (a) Ley S V and Thomas A W 2003 Modern synthetic methods for copper-mediated C(aryl)-O, C(aryl)-N, and C(aryl)-S bond formation Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 42 5400
4. (b) Taniguchi N and Onami T 2004 Magnesium-induced copper-catalyzed synthesis of unsymmetrical diaryl chalcogenide compounds from aryl iodide via cleavage of the Se−Se or S−S bond J. Org. Chem. 69 915
5. (c) Fernandez-Rodriguez M A, Shen Q and Hartwig J F 2006 A General and long-lived catalyst for the palladium-catalyzed coupling of aryl halides with thiols J. Am. Chem. Soc. 128 2180