Highly selective room-temperature copper-catalyzed C-N coupling reactions

Through the use of cyclic β-diketones as supporting ligands, the copper-catalyzed coupling of aryl iodides with aliphatic amines occurs at room temperature in as little as 1 h. These high reaction rates allow for the coupling of a wide range of aryl and heteroaryl iodides at room temperature. This method is highly tolerant of a number of reactive functional groups, including -Br and aromatic -NH2 as well as phenolic and aliphatic -OH. The high selectivity of the CuI-β-diketone catalyst for aliphatic amines represents a useful complement to the palladium-based methods. Copyright © 2006 American Chemical Society.