Photoinduced Copper-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling of Acylsilanes with Azoles

The transition metal-catalyzed direct coupling reac-tions involving electron-rich Fisher carbene species are largely underdeveloped and remain a big chal-lenge. Here, we report a direct coupling reaction of azoles with Fisher copper carbene species bearing an α-siloxy group, which could be in-situ generated from acylsilanes catalytically under photoirradiation and redox-neutral conditions. This reaction features mild conditions and remarkable heterocycle compat-ibility. Notably, this protocol tolerates a series of azole derivatives, including benzoxazole, benzothia-zole, benzoimidazole, benzoisoxazole, oxazole, oxadi-azole, triazolo[4,3-a]pyridine, purine, caffeine etc., which is highly synthetic useful in organic synthesis and pharmaceutical discovery. Preliminary mecha-nistic studies and kinetic analysis implied a bimetal-lic relay process.