Aerobic Direct C-H Arylation of Nonbiased Olefins

An efficient ligand-promoted biomimetic aerobic oxidative dehydrogenative cross-coupling between arenes and nonbiased olefins is presented. Acridine as a ligand was found to significantly enhance the rate, the yield, and the scope of the reaction under ambient oxygen pressure, providing a variety of alkenylarenes via an environmentally friendly procedure.