CoI -Catalyzed Barbier Reactions of Aromatic Halides with Aromatic Aldehydes and Imines.

The reductive Barbier coupling of aromatic halides and electrophiles has been achieved using a CoBr2 /1,10-phenanthroline catalytic system and over stoichiometric amounts of zinc. The reaction displayed a broad scope of substrates, including (hetero)aryl chlorides as pro-nucleophiles and aldehydes or imines as electrophiles, leading to diarylmethanols and diarylmethylamines in moderate to excellent yields, respectively.