Stereospecific Iron-Catalyzed Carbon (sp2)-Carbon (sp2) Cross-Coupling of Aryllithium with Vinyl Halides.

We present herein an efficient synthetic protocol involving iron-catalyzed cross-coupling of organolithium compounds with vinyl halides as key coupling partners. More than 30 examples were obtained with moderate to good yields and high stereoselectivities. The practicality of this method is evidenced by a gram-scale synthesis. In addition, a preliminary mechanistic investigation was also performed.