Beneficial Effects of Electrochemistry in Cross-Coupling Reactions: Electroreductive Synthesis of 4-Aryl- or 4-Heteroaryl-6-pyrrolylpyrimidines

The rarely described 4-(hetero) aryl-6-pyrrolylpyrimidines are prepared by electroreductive nickel-catalysed cross-coupling reactions between aryl halides and chloropyrimidines. Inherent predictable issues of such metal-catalysed reactions that involve or produce highly nitrogenated compounds - like catalyst poisoning - are tackled by the process described in this paper. The relevance of the strategy is validated by a thorough comparison of the results obtained under electrochemical conditions with those obtained under classical Suzuki-Miyaura conditions.