The Copper-Catalyzed N-Arylation of Nitrogen Containing Heterocycles

N-Aryl amines arevaluable compounds which are found in natural products, pharmaceuticals, and material chemistry [1].A recent approach to the synthesis of N-aryl amines is the copper-catalyzed Ullman type reaction in the presence of bidentate ligands which allowed these reactions to progress faster and under milder conditions [2]. The tridentate 4 -(4-methoxyphenyl)-2,2 :6 ,2 -terpyridines (Mtpy) have been of great interest over the last few years, mostly because of their ability to chelate transition metals. As part of our ongoing effort directed towards copper-catalyzed C-X (X=S, Se-Te) bond-forming reactions [3], here we report a simple and efficient catalytic system (CuI/Mtpy) for N-arylation of various nitrogen nucleophiles with a vast array of functional groups including electronwithdrawing and donating substituents on the aryl halides (Figure 1).