Potassium tert-butoxide is used in a precious-metal-free alkyl transfer strategy for synthesizing azaarenes and polyazaarenes from alkenes and nitriles via carbon–carbon bond cleavage. This method produces aryl methanes as the sole by-product and allows divergent synthesis of functionalized azaarenes, some of which exhibit visible-light photocatalytic reactivity.
- Yong-Ze Chen
- Xiang-Huan Shan
- Yan-Biao Kang