Manganese-catalyzed oxidative homo-coupling of aryl Grignard chlorides

Manganese-catalyzed homo-coupling of aryl magnesium chlorides to give biphenyls was successfully achieved using manganese chloride as catalyst. A variety of aryl magnesium chlorides were efficiently converted into the corresponding symmetrical biaryls using 10 mol% MnCl₂ as catalyst in the presence of a stoichiometric amount of 1,2-dichloroethane. Since the aryl chlorides, from which the Grignard reagents were prepared, are cheaper and more readily available that the corresponding bromides and iodides this procedure should become the method of choice for preparing symmetrical biaryls.