Ruthenium-catalyzed Suzuki coupling of anilines with alkenyl borates via selective aryl CN bond cleavage

Abstract Herein, we developed a new ruthenium(0)-catalyzed Suzuki-coupling of N,N-dimethyl-2-(pyridin-2-yl) anilines with alkenyl borates to synthesize 2-phenylolefins via the cleavage of neutral aryl C N bond. In the absence of ligand and additives, by using pyridine as the directing group, the desired 2-phenylolefins were obtained in good to excellent yields with high stereoselectivity (E/Z > 20:1).