A chemo- and regioselective copper-catalyzed cross-coupling procedure for amination of 2-bromobenzoic acids is described. The method eliminates the need for acid protection and produces N-aryl and N-alkyl anthranilic acid derivatives in up to 99% yield. N-(1-Pyrene)anthranilic acid has been employed in metal ion-selective fluorosensing. Titration experiments showed that this pyrene-derived amino acid forms an equimolar complex with Hg(II) in water resulting in selective fluorescence quenching even in the presence of other metal ions such as Zn(II) and Cd(II).

A chemo-and regioselective copper-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction for effective amination of 2-chlorobenzoic acids with aniline derivatives has been developed. The method eliminates the need for acid protection and produces a wide range of N-aryl anthranilic acid derivatives in up to 99%. The amination was found to proceed with both electron-rich and electron-deficient aryl chlorides and anilines and also utilizes sterically hindered anilines such as 2,6-dimethylaniline and 2-tertbutylaniline. The conformational isomerism of appropriately substituted N-aryl anthranilic acids has been investigated in the solid state. Crystallographic analysis of seven anthranilic acid derivatives showed formation of two distinct supramolecular architectures exhibiting trans-anti-and unprecedented trans-syn-dimeric structures.