Cp*Ir‐Catalyzed C−H Arylation of 2‐Pyridones and 1‐Isoquinolinones with Arylsilanes

Abstract A Cp*Ir‐catalyzed C−H arylation of 1‐isoquinolinone and 2‐pyridones with N ‐2‐pyridyl as a directing group to afford 6‐phenylpyridin‐2(1 H )‐ones and 3‐phenylisoquinolin‐1(2 H )‐ones by using arylsilanes is described in this paper. This method tolerates a series of functional groups, such as halide, trifluoromethyl, C=C double bond and offers a synthetic approach to the core structure of protoberberine alkaloids. Several experiments on mechanism studies were conducted to reveal the possible process of this Cp*Ir‐catalytic cycle.