Chromium-Catalyzed Regioselective Kumada Arylative Cross-Coupling of C(aryl)-O Bonds with a Traceless Activation Strategy.

We report here the chromium-catalyzed regioselective Kumada arylative cross-coupling of C(aryl)-O bonds at ambient temperature. By using a simple and low-cost chromium(II) chloride salt as a precatalyst, accompanied by a 2-pyridyl ligation, the catalytic cleavage and arylative coupling of C(aryl)-O bonds were achieved with a traceless activation strategy, overcoming the regioselectivity obstacle when several C-O bonds coexist in the Kumada coupling system.