Improving catalyst scope: use of multiple aniline substrates to optimize a palladium-catalyzed bisdiene cyclization

[reaction: see text] Combinatorial screening of five catalyst precursors and nine ligands with three substituted aniline trapping reagents uncovered a catalyst system that promotes efficient palladium-catalyzed cyclization-trapping with a series of substituted anilines of varying steric and electronic character. The results of the parallel optimization study illustrate the interdependency of the key reaction variables.