Synthesis of diarylmethylamines via palladium-catalyzed regioselective arylation of 1,1,3-triaryl-2-azaallyl anions.

Diarylmethylamines are of great interest due to their prevalence in pharmaceutical chemistry. As a result, new methods for their synthesis are in demand. Herein, we report a versatile protocol for the synthesis of diarylmethylamine derivatives involving palladium-catalyzed arylation of in situ generated 2-azaallyl anion intermediates. The 2-azaallyl anions are generated by reversible deprotonation of readily available aldimine and ketimine precursors. Importantly, the arylated aldimine and ketimine products do not undergo isomerization under the reaction conditions. Scale-up of the arylation and hydrolysis of the resulting products to furnish diarylmethylamines were also successfully performed.