Transition-Metal-Catalyzed Amination of Aryl Fluorides

Abstract

Arene activation via transition-metal (TM) η 6-coordination has merged as a powerful method to diversify the aromatic C-F bond, which is relatively less reactive due to its high bond energy. However, this strategy in general requires to use largely excess arenes or TM η 6-complexes as the substrates. Herein, we highlight our recent work on the catalytic S NAr amination of electron-rich and electron-neutral aryl fluorides that are inert in classical S NAr reactions. This protocol enabled by a Ru/hemilabile ligand catalyst covers a broad scope of substrates without wasting arenes. Mechanistic studies revealed that the nucleoÂ-philic substitution proceeded on a Ru η 6-arene complex, and the hemilabile ligand significant promoted the arene dissociation.