A new way to make 2-arylphenols, which are found in organocatalysts, sensors, phosphite ligands, and biologically active substances has been devised by scientists in the US.
Simple and cheap aryl chlorides can be used to directly arylate unprotected phenols without transition metals. This is the first general, regioselective intermolecular phenol ortho-arylation process that uses aryl chlorides as one of the coupling components. It is the most direct synthetic pathway to 2-arylphenols – no protecting group manipulations are required.
The team also made arylated binaphthol derivatives. Additionally, they have presented the shortest pathway to date for the synthesis of helicenes – one step from commercially available reagents.
Read this ‘HOT’ Chemical Science article today:
Divergent Reaction Pathways for Phenol Arylation by Arynes: Synthesis of Helicenes and 2-Arylphenols
T Truong and O Daugulis
Chem. Sci., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/c2sc21288a
