Arylmetals are highly valuable carbon nucleophiles that are readily and inexpensively prepared from aryl halides or arenes and widely used on both laboratory and industrial scales to react directly with a wide range of electrophiles. Although C-C bond formation has been a staple of organic synthesis, the direct transfer of primary amino (-NH2) and hydroxyl (-OH) groups to arylmetals in a scalable and environmentally friendly fashion remains a formidable synthetic challenge because of the absence of suitable heteroatom-transfer reagents. Here, we demonstrate the use of bench-stable N-H and N-alkyl oxaziridines derived from readily available terpenoid scaffolds as efficient multifunctional reagents for the direct primary amination and hydroxylation of structurally diverse aryl- and heteroarylmetals. This practical and scalable method provides one-step synthetic access to primary anilines and phenols at low temperature and avoids the use of transition-metal catalysts, ligands and additives, nitrogen-protecting groups, excess reagents and harsh workup conditions.
Arylmetals are highly valuable n class="Chemical">carbon nucleophiles that are readily and inexpensively prepared from aryl halides or arenes and widely used on both laboratory and industrial scales to react directly with a wide range of electrophiles. Although C-C bond formation has been a staple of organic synthesis, the direct transfer of primary amino (-NH2) and hydroxyl (-OH) groups to arylmetals in a scalable and environmentally friendly fashion remains a formidable synthetic challenge because of the absence of suitable heteroatom-transfer reagents. Here, we demonstrate the use of bench-stable N-H and N-alkyl oxaziridines derived from readily available terpenoid scaffolds as efficient multifunctional reagents for the direct primary amination and hydroxylation of structurally diverse aryl- and heteroarylmetals. This practical and scalable method provides one-step synthetic access to primaryanilines and phenols at low temperature and avoids the use of transition-metal catalysts, ligands and additives, nitrogen-protecting groups, excess reagents and harsh workup conditions.