Functionalized olefin cross-coupling to construct carbon–carbon bonds

Carbon–carbon (C–C) bonds form the backbone of many important molecules, including polymers, dyes, and pharmaceutical agents. The development of new methods to create these essential connections in a rapid and practical fashion has been the focus of numerous organic chemists. This endeavor heavily relies on the ability to form C–C bonds in the presence of sensitive functional groups and congested structural environments. Here we report a fundamentally new chemical transformation that allows for the facile construction of highly substituted and uniquely functionalized C–C bonds. Using a simple iron catalyst, an inexpensive silane, and a benign solvent under an ambient atmosphere, heteroatom-substituted olefins are easily merged with electron-deficient olefins to create molecular architectures that were previously difficult or impossible to access. More than sixty examples are presented with a wide array of substrates, demonstrating the unique chemoselectivity and mildness of this simple reaction.