Direct Amination of Phenols under Metal-Free Conditions

Herein, we disclose the metal-free synthesis of arylamines via the direct amination of phenols using aminating reagents. This reaction procedure uses easy accessible aminating reagents and provides a versatile synthetic route to a broad range of arylamines with various functionalities in good to excellent yield. By using a two-step route of amination and oxidative coupling reaction, we synthesized three naturally occurring carbazole alkaloids: murrayafoline A, mukonine, and clausenine from two commercially available phenols.