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Abstract
The conservation of our element resources is a fundamental challenge of mankind. The
development of alcohol refunctionalization reactions is a possible fossil carbon conservation
strategy since alcohols can be obtained from indigestible and abundantly available
biomass. The conservation of our rare noble metals, frequently used in key technologies
such as catalysis, might be feasible by replacing them with highly abundant metals.
The alkylation of amines by alcohols and related C-C coupling reactions are early
examples of alcohol refunctionalization reactions. These reactions follow mostly the
borrowing hydrogen or hydrogen autotransfer catalysis concept, and many 3d-metal catalysts
have been disclosed in recent years. In this review, we summarize the progress made
in developing Cu, Ni, Co, Fe, and Mn catalysts for C-N and C-C bond formation reactions
with alcohols and amines using the borrowing hydrogen or hydrogen autotransfer concept.
We expect that the findings in this field will inspire others to develop new efficient
and selective earth-abundant metal catalysts for borrowing hydrogen or hydrogen autotransfer
applications or to develop novel alcohol refunctionalization reactions that can be
mediated by such metals.