An oxidative coupling reaction between purines and alkyl ethers/benzyl compounds was developed to synthesize a series of N9 alkylated purine derivatives using n-BuNI as a catalyst and t-BuOOH as an oxidant. This protocol uses commercially available, inexpensive catalysts and oxidants and has a wide range of substrates with a simple operation.

All reactions were carried out in flame-dried sealed tubes with magnetic stirring under air without otherwise noted. All reagents were purchased from commercial sources without further purification unless otherwise indicated. C6 substituted purines was synthesized from 6-chloropurine according to Huang's method. 1 C2 and C6 substituted purines were synthesized from 2-amido-6-chloropurine according to Hu's method. 2 Purifications of reaction products were carried out by flash chromatography using Qingdao Haiyang Chemical Co. Ltd silica gel (400-630 mesh). 1 H NMR and 13 C NMR spectra were recorded with tetramethylsilane (TMS) as internal standard at

A novel route to a wide range of 9-alkyl(benzyl)purin-8-one derivatives from purines reacting with (thio)ethers or methylarenes is described.