Vanadium(IV) tetrachloride catalyzed oxidative homo-coupling of aryl lithium under mild reaction condition

A novel efficient strategy to prepare symmetrical diaryls via VCl₄ catalyzed homo-coupling of aryl lithium has been developed. In which, organometallic reagent n-BuLi was applied as the strong base to form aryl lithium from aryl halogen in anhydrous diethyl ether, then it was followed by the addition of catalytic amount of VCl₄ at room temperature to afford diaryls. All the diaryls have been characterized by ¹H and ¹³C NMR.