Transition metal-free and base-mediated transformation arylation of unactivated benzene with aryl halides in presence of N,N′-bis(salicylidene)ethylenediamine as organocatalyst

Direct transition metal-free arylation of benzene has been achieved using a combination of various aryl halides and N,N′-bis(salicylidene)ethylenediamine as a new ligand and catalyst. This facile one-pot reaction is reported as a new CH functionalization protocol for the synthesis of biaryls. In this research, 18-crown-6 and several Schiff-bases were tested and among them, N,N′-bis(salicylidene)ethylenediamine was found to be a great catalyst for this cross-coupling.