Nickel-Catalyzed O-Arylation of N-Protected Amino Alcohols with (Hetero)aryl Chlorides

The aryloxyamine motif is a prominent pharmacophore in drug design and development. While these biologically relevant structures could in principle be sustainably assembled from the base metal-catalyzed O-arylation of inexpensive and abundant amino alcohols with (hetero)aryl chlorides, reports of such challenging C-O bond formations with useful scope are lacking. In response, we report herein the hitherto unknown Ni-catalyzed C-O cross-coupling of N-protected amino alcohols (primary, secondary, and tertiary) with (hetero)aryl chlorides. Also presented are chemoselective sequential/telescoped C-N and C-O cross-couplings of the unprotected amino alcohol prolinol to afford an unsymmetrical diarylated product.