Iron catalyzed C-C dehydrogenative coupling reaction: synthesis of arylquinones from quinones/hydroquinones.

An atom-economical approach for the synthesis of arylquinones was achieved successfully via direct oxidative C-C dehydrogenative coupling reaction of quinones/hydroquinones with electron-rich arenes using an inexpensive Fe-I 2 -(NH 4 ) 2 S 2 O 8 system. The efficiency of this catalytic approach was established with a broad scope of substrates involving quinones and hydroquinones to give high yields (60-89%) of several arylated quinones. The present protocol is simple, practical, and shows good functional group tolerance.