Synthesis of phenanthridines by I-mediated sp C-H amination.

An I2-mediated synthesis of phenanthridines via intramolecular sp3 C-H amination of readily accessible aniline precursors is reported. The present synthetic process is straightforward and applicable to a broad variety of unprotected aniline substrates, and provides facile and efficient access to phenanthridine derivatives. This C-H amination protocol does not use transition metals, is operationally simple, and can be achieved on a gram scale.