Room-Temperature Electroreductiveα-Alkylation of N-Heteroarenes with Styrenes

Despite their interesting applications,direct and diverse syntheses of aryl-fused 2-alkyl cyclic amines still remain challenging.Here,the concept of incorporating a C–C coupling process into the N-heteroaryl reduction was successfully applied to fulfill such a synthetic purpose.Due to our use of controllable electroreduction coupled with proton abstraction,we can report a room-temperature reductiveα-alkylation of the inert N-heteroarenes with abundantly available styrenes in an undivided Zn(+)/C(−)cell.This proceeds with good substrate compatibility and operational simplicity,utilizes cost-effective sacrificial Zn-anode,exhibits high selectivity,and does not need pressurized H2 gas and transition-metal catalysts.This current work offers a useful platform for direct construction of valuable aryl-fused 2-alkyl cyclic amines that are difficult to access with conventional methods.