Practical iridium-catalyzed direct α-arylation of N-heteroarenes with (hetero)arylboronic acids by H<sub>2</sub>O-mediated H<sub>2</sub> evolution.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34244498.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-24468-z and PMC identifier 8270951.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Despite the widespread applications of 2-(hetero)aryl N-heteroarenes in numerous fields of science and technology, universal access to such compounds is hampered due to the lack of a general method for their synthesis. Herein, by a H<sub>2</sub>O-mediated H<sub>2</sub>-evolution cross-coupling strategy, we report an iridium(III)-catalyzed facile method to direct α-arylation of N-heteroarenes with both aryl and heteroaryl boronic acids, proceeding with broad substrate scope and excellent functional compatibility, oxidant and reductant-free conditions, operational simplicity, easy scalability, and no need for prefunctionalization of N-heteroarenes. This method is applicable for structural modification of biomedical molecules, and offers a practical route for direct access to 2-(hetero)aryl N-heteroarenes, a class of potential cyclometalated C^N ligands and N^N bidentate ligands that are difficult to prepare with the existing α-C-H arylation methods, thus filling an important gap in the capabilities of synthetic organic chemistry.