Thermocatalytic Dehydrogenation-Enabled Arene-Alkane Couplings

Comprehensive Summary The direct use of non-prefunctionalized arene and alkane as the starting materials to construct Caryl−Calkyl bond is an unfulfilled target and approaches to this challenge rarely surface in methodology studies.Current methods for thermocatalytic arene-alkane couplings(AAC)occur with specific substrates and/or inconvenient reagents.Herein,we report a one-pot relay bicatalysis system for AAC involving(pincer)Ir-catalyzed alkane transfer dehydrogenation and Fe(OTf)3-catalyzed olefin hydroarylation.This system exhibits broad scope and is particularly effective for alkylation of arenes with arylalkanes to form 1,1-diarylalkanes with high chemo-and regioselectivity,making it potentially useful for late-stage alkylation of complex molecules.Experimental mechanistic data provide a view into the factors controlling the regioselectivity.Finally,the strategy of dehydrogenation-enabled arene-alkane couplings has been successfully extended to a tandem catalysis by using a heterogeneous olefin hydroarylation catalyst.