Ruthenium-catalyzed carbon–carbon formation to synthesize tetraarylethanes and tetraarylxylylene through dechlorinative dimeric reaction

Dechlorinative coupling–dimerization reaction is studied to synthesize alkanes by using tris-triphenylphosphine ruthenium (II) in the presence of hydrogen atmosphere. Two types of halides (α-chlorodiarylmethanes 1a–d and bis(chlorophenylmethyl)-1,3-phenylene 6) are employed as substrates to form radical species and then dimerized to generate alkanes in high yields. To our knowledge, it is the first time that the formation of 1,1,2,2-tetraarylethanes and 1,2,9,10-tetraphenyl-di-m-xylylene over typical ruthenium-catalyzed dehalogenative coupling–dimerization conditions is reported.