Highly selective reductive cleavage of aromatic carbon–oxygen bonds catalyzed by a cobalt compound

•The reductive cleavage of aromatic C-O bonds was investigated.•Cobalt(II) acetylacetonate was used as the catalyst.•The selectivities were excellent.

A cobalt catalyst has been demonstrated, for the first time, to be effective for the reductive cleavage of inert aromatic CO bonds with high selectivity. Compared with previous Ni catalysts, the cobalt catalyst reported here is more commercially available and air-stable.

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