Rhodium(I)-Catalyzed Regiospecific Dimerization of Aromatic Acids: Two Direct C-H Bond Activations in Water

2,2'-Diaryl acids are key building blocks for some of the most important and high-performance polymers such as polyesters and polyamides (imides), as well as structural motifs of MOFs (metal-organic frameworks) and biological compounds. In this study, a direct, regiospecific and practical dimerization of simple aromatic acids to generate 2,2'-diaryl acids has been discovered, which proceeds through two rhodium-catalyzed C-H activations in water. This reaction can be easily scaled up to gram level by using only 0.4-0.6 mol% of the rhodium catalyst. As a proof-of-concept, the natural product ellagic acid was synthesized in two steps by this method.