Recently, Prof. Song Maoping’s research team from Chemistry and Molecular Engineering School of Zhengzhou University has made a great breakthrough in the study of cross-coupling reaction between C−H/C−H bonds of inexpensive cobalt (II) -catalyzed arenes. The related research output “Mixed Directing-Group Strategy: Oxidative C-H/C-H Bond Arylation of Unactivated Arenes by Cobalt Catalysis” has been published in international chemical journal “Angew.Chem” (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2016, 55, 13571-13575), with Pro. Song Maoping and associate professor Niu Junlong as co-corresponding authors. （http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201607719/abstract）

In recent years, Prof. Song Maoping’s team has done systematic researches on inexpensive cobalt-catalyzed C−H bond activation methodology and made a series of innovative achievements which have been published in the world-renowned chemical journal “Angew. Chem”.（Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2015, 54, 272-275；Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 10012-10015)

Recently, through probing into the reaction mechanism, Prof. Song’s team put forward the mixed directing-group strategy, which uses benzamide aminoquinoline and arylpyridines as materials, making it the first time in this field, utilizes skillfully the differentiated directing capabilities of directing-group, and achieves the cross-coupling reaction of C-H /C-H bond in the process of cobalt-catalyzed single electron transfer and cyclometalation, The reaction mechanism is characterized by high selecｔivity, efficient atom economy and simple steps, not only offering a new method for the synthesis of bifunctional asymmetric biphenyl compound, but also providing a new thought for the inexpensive cobalt-catalyzed C-H bond activation methodology research. In addition, due to its important achievements in the field of cobalt-catalyzed carbon hydrogen bond activation, invited by the journal “Chem Cat Chem” , the team has published a review on this field as the cover story of the journal Chem Cat Chem( 2016, 8, 1242–1263).