Palladium-catalyzed direct arylation and cyclization of o-iodobiaryls to a library of tetraphenylenes

Aryl-aryl bond formation constitutes one of the most important subjects in organic synthesis. The recent developments in direct arylation reactions forming aryl-aryl bond have emerged as very attractive alternatives to traditional cross-coupling reactions. Here, we describe a general palladium-catalyzed direct arylation and cyclization of o-iodobiaryls to build a library of tetraphenylenes. This transformation represents one of the very few examples of C-H activation process that involves simultaneous formation of two aryl-aryl bonds. Oxygen plays a vital role by ensuring high reactivity, with air as the promoter furnished the best results. We anticipate this ligand-free and aerobic catalytic system will simplify the synthesis of tetraphenylenes as many of the reported methods involve use of preformed organometallic reagents and will lead to the discovery of highly efficient new direct arylation process.