Reductive Cleavage of Aryl O-Carbamates to Phenols by the Schwartz Reagent. Expedient Link to the Directed Ortho Metalation Strategy

A general, mild, and efficient method for the reductive cleavage of aryl O-carbamates to phenols, 1 → 2 using the Schwartz reagent is reported. The method is selective, tolerating a large number of functional groups; may be carried out by direct or by an economical in situ procedure; and, notably, establishes a synthetic connection to the directed ortho metalation strategy (Figure 1 ) allowing new entries into difficult to prepare contiguously substituted aromatics and heteroaromatics.