Copper N-Heterocyclic Carbene: A Catalyst for Aerobic Oxidation or Reduction Reactions.

Copper N-heterocyclic carbene complexes can be readily used as catalysts for both aerobic oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes and reduction of imines to amines. Our methodology is universal for aromatic substrates and shows versatile tolerance to potential cascade reactions. A one-pot tandem synthetic strategy could afford useful imines and secondary amines via an oxidation-reduction strategy.