The Gomberg–Bachmann Reaction for the Arylation of Anilines with Aryl Diazotates

Simply aqueous sodium hydroxide is sufficient to exclude ionic side reactions and to prepare 2-aminobiphenyls from aryl diazotates and anilines through a new variant of the Gomberg–Bachmann reaction (see scheme). The metal-free reaction under basic conditions allows to exploit the highly radical-stabilizing effect of the aniline's free amino function for the first time, which leads to a so far unreached regioselectivity. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as "Supporting Information". Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.