Palladium-catalyzed chemo- and enantioselective oxidation of allylic esters and carbonates
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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Facile Preparation of (2Z,4E)-Dienamides by the Olefination of Electron-deficient Alkenes with Allyl Acetate
Published on: June 21, 2017
Barry M Trost1, Jeffery Richardson, Kelvin Yong
1Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, California 94305-5080, USA. bmtrost@stanford.edu
Abstract:
The palladium-catalyzed oxidation of allylic esters and carbonates using a novel potassium nitronate has been developed. This method is highly chemoselective, leaving other esters, alcohols, thioethers, and amines undisturbed. The oxidation can be operated in two modes: an achiral mode, using either PPh3 or rac-2 as ligand, or a chiral and highly enantioselective mode, using 2 as ligand. The oxidative enantioselective desymmetrization of meso bis-esters provides a significantly shorter method to arrive at commonly used synthetic intermediates compared to other strategies. Highly efficient kinetic resolution is also possible using this methodology.
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