Palladium-Catalyzed Site-Selective C–H Arylation of Arenes: Using Diaryl Disulfides as an Arylation Reagent

Abstract

The development of site-selective C–H arylation of simple arenes is an urgent yet very challenging task. In particular, the meta-C–H activation of electron-deficient arenes is one of the most challenging substrates for selective functionalization and lacks efficient synthetic approaches. Herein, we address this long-standing challenge for the first time by using easily available diaryl disulfide as a new masked arylating reagent. Diaryl disulfide displays a broader scope of substrates and enables the promotion of the arylation of both electron-rich and electron-deficient arenes. The site selectivity of multisubstituted arenes can also be predictable from the well-understood electrophilic substitution-type (SEAr) mechanism.