Palladium‐Catalyzed Regioselective Dehydrogenative C–H/C–H Cross‐Coupling of Pyrroles and Pyridine N‐Oxides

The palladium-catalyzed cross-dehydrogenative coupling of N-alkylpyrroles and pyridine N-oxides gave the corresponding pyrrolylpyridine N-oxides. Cu(OAc)2·H2O as a co-catalyst with air as the terminal oxidant led to preferential coupling in the β-position, whereas AgOAc as the stoichiometric oxidant resulted in preferential coupling in the α-position. N-(Benzyloxymethyl)pyrrole derivatives were deprotected by hydrogenolysis followed by basic hydrolysis.