Selective Benzylic CH‐Borylations by Tandem Cobalt Catalysis

Metal-catalyzed C−H activations are environmentally and economically attractive synthetic strategies for the construction of functional molecules as they obviate the need for pre-functionalized substrates and minimize waste generation. Great challenges reside in the control of selectivities, the utilization of unbiased hydrocarbons, and the operation of atom-economical dehydrocoupling mechanisms. An especially mild borylation of benzylic CH bonds was developed with the ligand-free pre-catalyst Co[N(SiMe3)2]2 and the bench-stable and inexpensive borylation reagent B2pin2 that produces H2 as the only by-product. A full set of kinetic, spectroscopic, and preparative mechanistic studies are indicative of a tandem catalysis mechanism of CH-borylation and dehydrocoupling via molecular CoI catalysts.