Shuttle Arylation by Rh(I) Catalyzed Reversible Carbon–Carbon Bond Activation of Unstrained Alcohols

The advent of transfer hydrogenation and borrowing hydrogen reactions paved the way to manipulate simple alcohols in previously unthinkable manners and circumvent the need for hydrogen gas. Analogously, transfer hydrocarbylation could greatly increase the versatility of tertiary alcohols. However, this reaction remains unexplored because of the challenges associated with the catalytic cleavage of unactivated C–C bonds. Herein, we report a rhodium(I)-catalyzed shuttle arylation cleaving the C(sp²)–C(sp³) bond in unstrained triaryl alcohols via a redox-neutral β-carbon elimination mechanism. A selective transfer hydrocarbylation of substituted (hetero)aryl groups from tertiary alcohols to ketones was realized, employing benign alcohols as latent C-nucleophiles. All preliminary mechanistic experiments support a reversible β-carbon elimination/migratory insertion mechanism. In a broader context, this novel reactivity offers a new platform for the manipulation of tertiary alcohols in catalysis.