Direct Arylation of Unactivated Alkanes with Heteroarenes by Visible-Light Catalysis

The functionalization of aliphatic C–H bonds is both a major challenge and a desirable goal in organic synthesis. Here, we describe the successful arylation of unactivated alkanes with heteroarenes by using iridium polypyridyl complexes as the photocatalyst and persulfate as the HAT catalyst precursor under visible-light irradiation. This reaction features good functional group tolerance and broad scope with regard to both alkane and heteroarene substrates (37 examples), which allows direct access to alkyl-substituted N-heteroarenes, a key structural motif in natural products and bioactive molecules.