Silver-Free, F+-enabled Pd-Catalyzed C–H Arylation at Room Temperature Using Boronic Acids

The biaryl motif is important for many fields within chemistry and the life sciences. Thus, new cheap and expeditious strategies to forge these aryl-aryl bonds are valuable. Herein, we report the discovery of conditions permitting the room temperature arylation of acetanilides, and related amides, using ubiquitous aryl boronic acid reagents. Critical to the success of this method is the use of Selectfluor as a cheap, sustainable alternative oxidant to silver-based additives and the deployment of a bulky QuinOx ligand supporting the palladium catalyst.