Ruthenium catalyzed desymmetrization of diazabicyclic olefins to access heteroaryl substituted cyclopentenes through C–H activation of phenylazoles

The first ruthenium catalyzed redox-neutral C–H activation strategy for the ring-opening of diazabicyclic olefins via C–H bond cleavage of phenyl azoles is reported. The developed method offers a novel route to functionalized cyclopentenes by employing less-expensive ruthenium catalyst and readily accessible biologically significant heteroarenes. The present protocol is a merger of the C–H activation of phenyl substituted heteroaromatics and subsequent β-nitrogen elimination of diazabicyclic olefins.