Copper-Catalyzed Selective Diphenylation of Carboxylic Acids with Cyclic Diaryliodonium Salts

Herein, we describe a novel one-step copper-catalyzed diphenylation of readily available aliphatic or (hetero)aromatic carboxylic acids with cyclic hypervalent diaryliodonium reagents. The selective diphenylation of benzoic acids with high atom economy can be achieved without observation of the arylation at the phenyl hydroxyl/thio/amino position. The valuable biphenyl esters with an additional iodo-substituent were obtained in good to excellent yields, which can be further transformed to diversified building blocks for the synthesis of bioactive natural products, pharmaceuticals, and functional materials. A wide range of different functional groups are compatible under the optimized reaction conditions.