Benzynes were selectively generated in situ from phenols and trapped regioselectively with potassium hexamethyldisilazide to form primary anilines following acidic workup. The direct conversion of a phenolic hydroxyl group into a free amino group is a useful method for the preparation of primary aryl amines that are hard to synthesize by using coupling reactions involving phenol derivatives with ammonia. Whereas reactions of ortho- and meta-substituted phenols produced meta-substituted anilines exclusively, those of para-substituted phenols provided ortho-silylanilines.
Keywords: amination; amines; arynes; nucleophilic addition; synthetic methods.
© 2020 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.