Copper-catalyzed aerobic oxidative intramolecular alkene C-H amination leading to N-heterocycles.

A copper-catalyzed aerobic oxidative intramolecular alkene C-H amination has been developed using readily available substituted 3-benzylidene-2-pyridin-2-ylmethyl-2,3-dihydro-isoindol-1-ones as the starting materials, and the corresponding N-heterocycles were obtained in good to excellent yields. This method should provide a new and useful strategy for constructing N-heterocycles.