Electronic control of the regiochemistry in palladium-phosphine catalyzed intermolecular Heck reactions

Density functional theory calculations of the transition-state structures and reaction barriers for the C-C coupling between monosubstituted eta(2)-olefins and eta(1)-vinyl for neutral [PdI(PH(3))(vinyl)(RCHCH(2))] and cationic [Pd(H(2)PCH(2)PH(2))(vinyl)(RCHCH(2))](+) (R = OMe, Me, and CN) depend mostly on the regiochemistry and not on the starting position of the olefin substituent. The regiochemistry is thus implicit in the electronic structure of the precursor complex. A selectivity index, Omega, based on electrostatic and frontier orbital interactions gives a good correlation with experiment for vinylations or arylations. The model correctly predicts that the regiochemistry for R = OMe, Me, and CN is the same for both neutral and cationic Pd complexes while for R = CH(2)OH the regiochemistry reverses. The latter is confirmed by explicit calculations of the transition-state energies. Selectivity indices are computed for 13 substituents: CO(2)Me, CN, CF(3), Ph, H, Me, CH(2)OH, CH(2)NMe(2), 2-pyrolidone, CH(2)SiMe(3), OAc, OMe, and F. Cationic conditions systematically give larger Omega values and thus tend to favor coupling at the alpha carbon on the olefin. The Omega values are approximately additive and can be used to predict the regiochemistry for disubstituted olefins.