A novel synthesis of benzyl hydrazines through oxidative amination of benzylic C–H bonds has been developed. The resulting aminated products are accessed directly from the reaction of alkylarenes with dialkyl/diphenyl azodicarboxylates using Cu2O/Phen as the catalytic system. The reaction proceeded smoothly and a decent range of N-substituted hydrazides was synthesized in acceptable to good yields. Both primary and secondary sp3 C–H sources afford only monoamination products.
