Decarboxylative C(sp3)−O Cross‐Coupling

Alkyl aryl ethers are an important class of compounds in medicinal and agricultural chemistry. Catalytic C(sp³ )-O cross-coupling of alkyl electrophiles with phenols is an unexplored disconnection strategy to the synthesis of alkyl aryl ethers, with the potential to overcome some of the major limitations of existing methods such as C(sp² )-O cross-coupling and S_N 2 reactions. Reported here is a tandem photoredox and copper catalysis to achieve decarboxylative C(sp³ )-O coupling of alkyl N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI) esters with phenols under mild reaction conditions. This method was used to synthesize a diverse set of alkyl aryl ethers using readily available alkyl carboxylic acids, including many natural products and drug molecules. Complementarity in scope and functional-group tolerance to existing methods was demonstrated.