Electrooxidative para-selective C-H/N-H cross-coupling with hydrogen evolution to synthesize triarylamine derivatives

Oxidative C-H/N-H cross-coupling is one of the most atom-economical methods for the construction of C-N bonds. However, traditional oxidative C-H/N-H cross-coupling either required the use of strong oxidants or high reaction temperature, which makes it difficult to tolerate redox active functional groups. Herein we describe an external chemical oxidant-free electrooxidative C-H/N-H cross-coupling between electron-rich arenes and diarylamine derivatives. Under undivided electrolytic conditions, a series of triarylamine derivatives are produced from electron-rich arenes and diarylamine derivatives with high functional group tolerance. Both of the coupling partners are redox active in oxidative C-H/N-H cross-coupling, which enables high regioselectivity in C-N bond formation. Exclusive para-selectivity is observed for the coupling with anilines.