Ruthenium/Yb(OTf)3-cocatalyzed dehydrogenative synthesis of 14-substituted-14-H-dibenzo[a,j]xanthenes from β-naphthol and alcohols

By employing [(PO)-O-boolean AND](2)Cl2Ru/Yb(OTf)(3) as a new and efficient catalyst system [(PO)-O-boolean AND - 2-(diphenylphosphino)-2,4-dimethylpentan-3-one], readily available, abundant alcohols were firstly employed for dehydrogenative synthesis of 14-substituted-14-H-dibenzo[a,j]xanthenes. Due to the inherent stability of alcohols compared to aldehydes, the presented synthetic protocol is adaptable to a broad substrate scope, there is no need for stringent protection in the whole preparation process, providing the potential to prepare products that are currently inaccessible or challenging to prepare using conventional methods. It is an important complement to the conventional synthetic methodologies.