Acceptorless dehydrogenative coupling with Ru-based catalysts for the synthesis of N-heteroaromatic compounds

Ru-Catalyzed acceptorless dehydrogenative coupling (ADC) and auto-transfer-hydrogenative (ATH) reactions are effective, versatile transformations for the constructions of N-heteroaromatic compounds from alcohols. Water and hydrogen are the by-products and the starting alcohols are less toxic, more readily available and more easily handled than their halogenated counterparts. A variety of homogeneous ruthenium catalysts, alcohols and partner-substrates such as amines, ammonia, amidines and nitriles, have been used to build N-heteroaromatic compounds in one-pot, multi-step syntheses. This review details recently reported Ru catalysts employed for these reactions, describing the scope of each methodology, proposed reaction mechanisms, regioselectivity of coupling and applications in synthesis. This journal is