Quadruple C-H activation coupled to hydrofunctionalization and C-H silylation/borylation enabled by weakly coordinated palladium catalyst

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 5662
• Main Authors: Tang, Bo-Cheng, Lin, Wen-Xuan, Chen, Xiang-Long, He, Cai, Ma, Jin-Tian, Wu, Yan-Dong, Lan, Yu, Wu, An-Xin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 09.11.2020; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 119/118; 140/131; 140/58; 639/638/403/933; 639/638/549/975; 639/638/77/885; 639/638/77/888; Alkenes; Catalysts; Chemistry; Complex compounds; Coordination; Density functional theory; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydroxyl groups; Intermediates; Interrupters; Investigations; Laboratories; multidisciplinary; Palladium; Pyridines; Science; Science (multidisciplinary)
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19508-z

Unlike the well-reported 1,2-difunctionalization of alkenes that is directed by classic pyridine and imine-containing directing groups, oxo-palladacycle intermediates featuring weak Pd-O coordination have been less demonstrated in C-H activated cascade transformations. Here we report a quadruple C-H activation cascade as well as hydro-functionalization, C-H silylation/borylation sequence based on weakly coordinated palladium catalyst. The hydroxyl group modulates the intrinsic direction of the Heck reaction, and then acts as an interrupter that biases the reaction away from the classic β-H elimination and toward C-H functionalization. Mechanistically, density functional theory calculation provides important insights into the key six-membered oxo-palladacycle intermediates, and indicates that the β-H elimination is unfavorable both thermodynamically and kinetically. In this article, we focus on the versatility of this approach, which is a strategic expansion of the Heck reaction. Combining the Heck reaction with other transformations provides a powerful strategy to access diverse, complex compounds. Here, the authors report a weak coordination dominated Pd(0)-catalyzed quadruple C-H activation followed by hydro-functionalization, C-H silylation, and C-H borylation.