Copper-Catalyzed Dehydrogenase Coupling of Arenes with Alcohols

摘要

Dehydrogenative cross-couplings arguably represent the most attractive strategy to introduce carbon- or heteroatom-based groups into organic molecules, Ideally, two different molecules are each selectively activated at one specific C—H or heteroatom—H group, and undergo regioselective cross-coupling with one another. The hydrogen formally produced is usually scavenged in an oxidative step, for example, with formation of water, which significantly contributes to the thermodynamic driving force of the reaction. Key advantages of this approach are that functionalization occurs within a single step rather than a resource- and waste-intensive synthetic sequence consisting of the prefunctionalization of substrates with leaving groups and traditional cross-coupling. Tremendous progress has been made in recent years in this field, and the feasibility of regioselective dehydrogenative cross-couplings has been demonstrated for various C—C, several C—N, and a few C—Obond-forming reactions. However, the practical utility of existing protocols is often limited by narrow substrate scopes, lack of selectivity or the use of expensive metal catalysts, e.g., Pd,Rh, or Ru.