Multi-Component One-Pot Reaction of Aromatic Carbonyl Compounds, Tosylhydrazide, and Arylboronic Acids.

In this paper, we developed a new method using 4-bromoacetophenone as the starting material, with tosylhydrazide and two arylboronic acids using Barluenga and Suzuki couplings in a four-component one-pot reaction to afford the target product 4-benzyl-1,1'-biphenyls. This system that we have developed enables the use of easily accessible starting materials and can be employed on a wide variety of substrates with good functional group tolerance. In particular, this protocol can be applied to the synthesis of 4-(1-([1,1'-biphenyl]-4-yl)ethyl)pyridine derivatives, a class of potential analogs of CPY17 inhibitors of prostate cancer.