On the ‘Novel two-phase oxidative cross-coupling of the two-component molecular crystal of 2-naphthol and 2-naphthylamine’

The FeCl3-mediated, heterogeneous cross-coupling of the title compounds (1 + 2 → 3) has been re-examined and formation of the molecular crystal (1 + 2) shown to be irrelevant to the selectivity observed; a comparison of FeIII and CuII as reagents is presented.