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Updated: Aug 10, 2026

Palladium N-Heterocyclic Carbene Complexes: Synthesis from Benzimidazolium Salts and Catalytic Activity in Carbon-carbon Bond-forming Reactions
Published on: July 30, 2017
An efficient enantioselective fluorination of various beta-ketoesters catalyzed by chiral palladium complexes
Yoshitaka Hamashima1, Kenji Yagi, Hisashi Takano
1Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University, Katahira, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8577, Japan.
Abstract:
Reflecting the importance of fluorinated organic compounds in medicinal chemistry, development of an efficient method for catalytic enantioselective fluorination is increasingly desirable. Using a novel palladium complex 2 (1-2.5 mol %), various beta-ketoesters including cyclic and acyclic substrates were fluorinated with excellent enantioselectivity in the range of 83-94% ee. It is environmentally advantageous that this reaction proceeds well in solvents such as EtOH, rather than usual organic solvents. Furthermore, the product was successfully tranformed into both alpha-fluoro beta-hydroxy and beta-amino acid derivatives, which should be extremely useful in developing novel drugs.
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