A Rare Earth Metal Catalyzed Aerobic Dehydrogenation of N-Heterocycles

Rare earth metals exhibit high catalytic activity and selectivity in various organic reactions due to their unique electronic properties. Among them, praseodymium has shown high catalytic activity under mild reaction conditions compared with transitional metals. Here, we report a strategy of Pr-catalyzed aerobic dehydrogenative aromatization of saturated N-heterocycles to produce 7 classes of products with a broad substrate scope.