Amidines for versatile ruthenium(II)-catalyzed oxidative C-H activations with internal alkynes and acrylates.

Cationic ruthenium complexes derived from KPF6 or AgOAc enabled efficient oxidative CH functionalizations on aryl and heteroaryl amidines. Thus, oxidative annulations of diversely decorated internal alkynes provided expedient access to 1-aminoisoquinolines, while catalyzed C-H activations with substituted acrylates gave rise to structurally novel 1-iminoisoindolines. The powerful ruthenium(II) catalysts displayed a remarkably high site-, regio- and, chemoselectivity. Therefore, the catalytic system proved tolerant of a variety of important electrophilic functional groups. Detailed mechanistic studies provided strong support for the cationic ruthenium(II) catalysts to operate by a facile, reversible C-H activation.