Ni-Catalyzed Formal Cross-Electrophile Coupling of Alcohols with Aryl Halides

Direct coupling of unactivated alcohols remains a challenge in current synthetic chemistry. We herein demonstrate a strategy building upon in situ halogenation/reductive coupling of alcohols with aryl halides to forge Csp2-Csp3 bonds. The combination of 2-chloro-3-ethylbenzo[d]oxazol-3-ium salt (CEBO) and TBAB as the mild bromination reagents enables rapid transformation of a wide range of alcohols to their bromide counterparts within one to 5 min in CH3CN and DMF, which is compatible with the Ni-catalyzed cross-electrophile coupling conditions in the presence of a chemical reductant. The present method is suitable for arylation of a myriad of structurally complex alcohols with no need for prepreparation of alkyl halides. More importantly, the mild and kinetically rapid bromination process has shown good selectivity in the bromination/arylation of symmetric diols and less sterically hindered hydroxyl groups in polyols, thus offering promise for selective functionalization of diols and polyols without laborious protecting/deprotecting operations. The practicality of this work is also evident in the arylation of a number of carbohydrates, drug compounds, and naturally occurring alcohols.