A method was developed for the cross-dehydrogenative coupling of alkylarenes and related compounds with N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI) using cerium (IV) ammonium nitrate (CAN) to prepare O-substituted NHPI derivatives. The characteristic feature of the reaction is that NHPI plays a dual role. Thus, in the presence of CAN, NHPI generates the phthalimide-N- oxyl (PINO) radical, which abstracts a hydrogen atom from the benzyl position to form a C- ...
