Electrostatically Directed meta-Selective Borylation of Arenes

Abstract The constitutional challenge of an electrostatically directed meta borylation of sterically biased and unbiased substrates is summarized in the present work. The borylation follows an electrostatic interaction between the partially positive and negative charges of the ligand and substrate, respectively. Using our developed strategy, it has been demonstrated that a wide range of challenging substrates, especially 4-substituted substrates can be borylated at the meta position with excellent selectivity. Moreover, unsubstituted substrates are also displayed excellent meta selectivity. The reaction employs bench-stable ligand, proceeds at moderate reaction temperature (40–80 °C), precluding the need to synthesize bulky and sophisticated ligand/template.