TBAI-catalyzed oxidative cross-coupling of phenols and 2-aminoacetophenones

An iodide-catalyzed oxidative cross-coupling between phenols and 2-aminoacetophenones has been developed. Using catalytic amounts of tetrabutylammoniumiodide (TBAI) as an iodine-containing catalyst and aqueous solutions of tert-butyl hydro-peroxide (TBHP) as the stoichiometric co-oxidant, a variety of α-phenoxylated 2-aminoacetophenones could be obtained in yields of up to 92% after remarkably short reaction times (20 min). This is a very rare example for an iodide-catalyzed intermolecular cross-coupling utilizing phenols. However, this efficient methodology could be further extended toward an intramolecular variant which gives direct access to a range of dihydro-4H-benzo[e][1,3]oxazin-4-ones.