Chemistry
Carbene Insertions into Carbon–Hydrogen Bonds for Selective Functionalization
Quick fact
Carbene insertions can convert a simple C–H bond into a C–C bond with high selectivity, even in the presence of many other C–H bonds, enabling chemists to functionalize unactivated positions that are normally extremely difficult to modify.
Why this is interesting
Imagine being able to edit a molecule's structure by directly replacing a single hydrogen atom with a new carbon-based group—without changing anything else. That is the promise of carbene C–H insertion, a powerful tool that chemists have developed to build complex molecules with surgical precision.