A copper-catalyzed oxidative coupling reaction of arylboronic acids, amines and carbon dioxide using molecular oxygen as the oxidant

A Cu-catalyzed oxidative coupling reaction of arylboronic acids, amines and carbon dioxide is described for the first time in this paper. The reaction tolerates a wide range of functional groups, providing a convenient protocol for the synthesis of various O-aryl carbamates. The successful development of the transformation was enabled by the use of BF₃·OEt₂ as the promoter and molecular oxygen as the oxidant. Mechanistic studies suggested that the Cu^II carbamato complex is involved in the catalytic transformation.