Ruthenium-Catalyzed Oxidative Homo-Coupling of 2-Arylpyridines

A ruthenium-catalyzed oxidative homo-coupling reaction of 2-arylpyridines via C-H activation was developed. The reaction could tolerate various functional groups on both the aryl and the pyridyl rings to afford a series of dimerized products with iron(III) chloride (FeCl3) as a stoichiometric oxidant. A tentative mechanism was proposed for this oxidative C-H/C-H homo-coupling.