Distal Weak Coordination of Acetamides in Ruthenium(II)-Catalyzed C-H Activation Processes.

C-H activations with challenging arylacetamides were accomplished by versatile ruthenium(II) biscarboxylate catalysis. The distal C-H functionalization offers ample scope-including twofold oxidative C-H functionalizations and alkyne hydroarylations-through facile base-assisted internal electrophilic-type substitution (BIES) C-H ruthenation by weak O-coordination.