Transition-Metal-Free Aryl-Aryl Cross-Coupling: C-H Arylation of 2-Naphthols with Diaryliodonium Salts
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Updated: Jan 23, 2026

Microwave-Assisted Preparation of 1-Aryl-1H-pyrazole-5-amines
Published on: June 23, 2019
Manoj K Ghosh1, Jan Rzymkowski1,2, Marcin Kalek1
1Centre of New Technologies, University of Warsaw, S. Banacha 2C, 02-097, Warsaw, Poland.
Abstract:
Transition-metal-free regioselecitive C-H arylation of 2-naphthols with diaryliodonium salts has been developed. The reaction proceeds under very simple experimental conditions and affords a range of products with various substitution patterns. The method allows for the incorporation of electron-deficient aryls, which complements well currently existing metal-free aryl-aryl cross-couplings of phenols that have been so far restricted to the introduction of electron-rich aryl moieties. The mechanism of the reaction was studied by means of DFT calculations, demonstrating that the C-C bond formation occurs via a dearomatization of 2-naphthol substrate, followed by a subsequent rearomatization by tautomerization. The computations show that the use of a low polarity solvent and an insoluble inorganic base is key to securing the high selectivity of the C-C coupling over a competing C-O arylation pathway, by preventing the incipient deprotonation of 2-naphthol.
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