Synthesis of meta-functionalized phenols and anilines

Phenols and anilines are of extreme importance for medicinal chemistry and material science. The development of efficient approaches to prepare both compounds has thus long been a vital research topic. The utility of phenols and anilines directly reflects the identity and pattern of substituents on the benzenoid ring. Electrophilic substitutions remain among the most powerful synthetic methods to substituted phenols and anilines, yet in principle achieving ortho- and para-substituted products. Therefore, the selective preparation of meta-substituted phenols and anilines is the most significant challenge. We herein report an efficient copper-catalyzed dehydrogenation strategy to exclusively synthesize meta-functionalized phenols and anilines from carbonyl substituted cyclohexanes. Mechanistic studies indicated that this transformation underwent a copper-catalyzed dehydrogenation/allylic hydroxylation or amination/oxidative dehydrogenation/aromatization cascade process.