Copper-Mediated Dehydrogenative Biaryl Coupling of Naphthylarnines and 1,3-Azoles

A copper-mediated dehydrogenative biaryl cross-coupling of naphthylamines and 1,3-azoles has been developed. The key to its success is the introduction of N,N-bidentate coordination system based on the picolinamide directing group. The reaction proceeds smoothly without precious transition metal catalysts and provides highly pi-extended heterobiaryls directly.