Metal-Free Aryl Cross-Coupling Directed by Traceless Linkers

08 July 2019, Version 1
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

The metal-free, highly selective synthesis of biaryls poses a major challenge in organic synthesis. We report the scope and mechanism of a promising new approach to (hetero)biaryls by the photochemical fusion of aryl substituents tethered to a traceless linker (photosplicing). Interrogating photosplicing with varying reaction conditions and comparison of diverse synthetic probes (40 examples, including a suite of heterocycles) showed that the reaction has a surprisingly broad scope and involves neither metals nor radicals. Quantum chemical calculations revealed that the C–C bond is formed by an intramolecular photochemical process that involves an excited singlet state and the traverse of a five-membered transition state, thus warranting consistent ipsoipso‑coupling fidelity. These results demonstrate that photosplicing is a unique aryl cross-coupling method in the excited state that can be applied to synthesize a broad range of biaryls.

Keywords

Cross-coupling
Photochemistry
Photosplicing
Sulfonamides
Biaryls
TDDFT
Synthetic methods
C-C bond formation

Supplementary materials

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Title
SI Photosplicing 20190705
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s1 irc
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