Copper-Catalyzed Dehydrogenative Cyclization: A Direct Route to Oxazoles from Readily Available Ketones and Amines

Oxazoles are privileged heterocycles with broad applications in pharmaceuticals, natural product synthesis, and materials science. Conventional approaches to oxazole construction often require highly functionalized precursors or costly reagents, limiting their practicality. Herein, we report a copper-catalyzed intermolecular dehydrogenative oxidative cyclization between simple ketones and benzylamines, providing straightforward access to structurally diverse oxazoles under mild conditions. The present protocol offers an efficient and practical alternative for constructing oxazoles directly from abundant feedstocks.