Oxidative Cross‐Coupling of Arenes Induced by Single‐Electron Transfer Leading to Biaryls by Use of Organoiodine(III) Oxidants

Abstract

Cross-coupling goes green: The direct oxidative cross-coupling reaction of naphthalenes and other electron-rich arenes with mesitylenes has been achieved in high yields using hypervalent iodine(III) reagents. The key for reaction success is the exclusive generation of cation radical intermediates of naphthalenes and the use of mesitylenes as the reactive and less dimerizable nucleophiles. R = alkyl, aryl, halogen, ester, alkoxy, etc.