Radical-Enabled Dehydrogenative Aromatization: Forging Functionalized Aromatics from Aliphatic Architectures at Ambient Temperature

Functionalized arenes, such as aniline and phenol derivatives, are important structures in natural products, drug molecules, and functional materials. Thus, the development of methods for the efficient synthesis of functionalized arenes from different precursors under mild conditions have been a long-term topic in organic synthesis and related areas. To date, great efforts have been devoted the Ar−X bond-forming processes from aromatic precursors. In addition, synthesis of functionalized arenes from aliphatic architectures represents an attractive yet challenging alternative to access functionalized arenes, which construct aromatization during the reaction process along with the formation of C−X bonds. Recently, a new strategy for functionalized arenes from non-aromatic precursors enabled by radicals has received considerable attention and represents a new direction to access functionalized arenes from broader precursors at room temperature.