Nickel-catalysed direct α-olefination of alkyl substituted N-heteroarenes with alcohols

Catalytic alpha-olefination of alkylheteroarenes with primary alcohols via dehydrogenative coupling is presented. A simple nickel catalyst system stabilised by readily available nitrogen ligands enables a series of interesting E-configured vinylarenes (confirmed by X-ray crystal-structure analysis) to be synthesised in good to excellent yields with olefin/alkane selectivity of >20 : 1. Hydrogen and water are generated as byproducts and quantitative determination of H-2 was performed.