A mild and convenient oxidative transformation of secondary alcohols to 1,5-disubstituted tetrazoles is uncovered by employing trimethylsilyl azide (TMSN 3 ) as a nitrogen source in the presence of a catalytic amount of copper(II) perchlorate hexaA C H T U N G T R E N N U N G hydrate [CuA C H T U N G T R E N N U N G (ClO 4 ) 2 . 6 H 2 O] (5 mol%) and 2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-para-benzoquinone (DDQ) (1.2 equiv.) as an oxidant. This reaction is performed under ambient conditions and proceeds through C À C bond cleavage.Keywords: alcohols; azides; copper; regioselectivity; tetrazoles Metal-mediated transformations are useful and indispensable strategies for C À C and C À heteroatom bond forming reactions in organic synthesis.[1] In addition, C À N bond forming strategies are not only challenging but have a great impetus as they provide avenues for the synthesis of biologically active and therapeutically useful heterocycles.[2] Among the heterocyles, tetrazole and its derivatives form a vital class of nitrogencontaining molecules [3] due to their well-known biological activities [4] as well as vast applications in pharmaceuticals [5a] and material sciences.[5c] Traditionally, 1,5-disubstituted tetrazoles are prepared by (i) the reaction of nitriles with alkyl or aromatic azides, [6] (ii) the reaction of ketones [7] or oximes [8] with sodium azide or hydrazoic acid and (iii) the reaction of amides [9] with sodium azide in the presence of PCl 5 or triflic anhydride, etc. Gold-catalyzed synthesis of tetrazoles using alkynes has been recently reported by Echavarren and Gaydou.[10] Recently, Jiao and coworkers developed a method to synthesize 1,5-disubstituted tetrazoles using 1,3-diphenylpropene, [11] which requires precursors that are relatively difficult to access and require multistep synthetic sequences. [12] Additionally, this protocol uses a large excess of TMSN 3 (5.5 equiv.), harsh reaction conditions (80 8C), and requires additives and long reaction times.In continuation of our investigations on the utility of azides in C À N bond forming reactions, especially leading to the formation of nitriles, [13] and in the light of Jiaos work, [11] we anticipated that secondary alcohols in the presence of a Cu salt, an excess of trimethylsilyl azide (TMSN 3 ) and 2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-benzoquinone (DDQ), may form the corresponding azide in situ and then undergo a rearrangement to form the nitrilium ion, which may be trapped in a [2+3] cycloaddition fashion by the excess azide present in the reaction medium (Scheme 1). Herein, we present our detailed investigation for converting secondary alcohols directly to 1,5-disubstituted tetrazoles in a one-pot fashion under ambient conditions. We began our study by investigating the Cu-catalyzed reaction of (E)-1,3-diphenylprop-2-en-1-ol 1a with TMSN 3 as a nitrogen source and DDQ as an oxidant (Table 1). Preliminary studies were carried out using Cu(I) and Cu(II) salts such as CuCl, CuBr, CuI, These are not the final page numbers! ÞÞ COMMUNICATIONS