Decarbonylative Pd-Catalyzed Suzuki Cross-Coupling for the Synthesis of Structurally Diverse Heterobiaryls

Heteroaromatic biaryls are core scaffolds found in a plethora of pharmaceuticals; however, their direct synthesis by the Suzuki cross-coupling is limited to heteroaromatic halide starting materials. Here, we report a direct synthesis of diverse nitrogen-containing heteroaromatic biaryls by Pd-catalyzed decarbonylative Suzuki cross-coupling of widely available heterocyclic carboxylic acids with arylboronic acids. The practical and modular nature of this cross-coupling enabled the straightforward preparation of >45 heterobiaryl products using pyridines, pyrimidines, pyrazines, and quinolines in excellent yields. We anticipate that the modular nature of this protocol will find broad application in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery research.