The Synthesis of Dibenzofuran Derivatives through C-H Activation

Dibenzofurans is a key structural unit that lies in many bioactive synthetic compounds and natural products. Traditional methods for its synthesis suffer from lengthy synthetic routes and low atom efficiency.

Recently, Qiang Zhu’s group at GIBH developed an efficient method for the synthesis of a series of dibenzofuran derivatives utilizing copper-catalyzed C？H activation process. This work has been published on Org. Lett. 2012, 14, 1078-1081.

In this work, by using o-phenylphenols as substrates and CuBr as catalyst, dibenzofuran derivatives were obtained in one step by C？H activation and C？O bond formation. This cycloetherification method features high synthetic efficiency and good atom economy. This method is potentially possible to be extended to the synthesis of other heterocycles.　

This project was funded by National Science Foundation of China (21072190) .