Oxidative transformation of aryls using molybdenum pentachloride

Molybdenum pentachloride combines a strong Lewis acid character with an unusually high oxidation potential creating a powerful reagent for oxidative transformations. Since the oxidative coupling reaction of aryls is induced at an extraordinarily high reaction rate, a variety of labile groups, e.g. iodo, tert-alkyl, etc., are tolerated on the aromatic core. Furthermore, the co-formed molybdenum salts can either be exploited for template effects to obtain uncommon geometries in a preferred manner, or redox-play starts after aqueous workup. Therefore MoCl5 represents a unique and easily available reagent.