Synthesis of secondary arylamines through copper-mediated intermolecular aryl amination.

A mild intermolecular copper-mediated amination of aryl iodides has been developed. The reaction takes place at room temperature or heating at 90 degrees C and tolerates halogens attached to the aromatic ring. Its synthetic applications include a synthetic protocol for unsymmetrical N,N'-dialkylated phenylenediamines and both a stepwise and a general synthetic method for N-aryl secondary amines via Ns-anilides (readily obtained by reaction of the Ns-amide). [reaction: see text]