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Updated: Aug 20, 2026

A Microwave-Assisted Direct Heteroarylation of Ketones Using Transition Metal Catalysis
Published on: February 16, 2020
Buttressing effects on haloarene deprotonation: a merely kinetic or also thermodynamic phenomenon?
Joanna Gorecka1, Christophe Heiss, Rosario Scopelliti
1Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering (ISIC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale, (BCh), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Abstract:
(2,6-Dichlorophenyl)- and (2,6-dibromophenyl)trialkylsilanes undergo hydrogen/metal interconversion preferentially at the 4- rather than 3-position. However, the organometallic species generated by such a "meta metalation" are thermodynamically less stable (i.e., more basic) than those that would result from an ordinary "ortho metalation". This was demonstrated by equilibration experiments based on permutational halogen/metal interconversion. A new buttressing effect can explain the unprecedented regioselectivity. It is supported by X-ray structures that reveal marked deformations of the benzene ring in halophenylsilanes. [structure: see text]
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