Stereospecific decarboxylative allylation of sulfones

Allyl sulfonylacetic esters undergo highly stereospecific, palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative allylation. The reaction allows the stereospecific formation of tertiary homoallylic sulfones in high yield. In contrast to related reactions that proceed at -100 degrees C and require highly basic preformed organometallics, the decarboxylative coupling described herein occurs under mild nonbasic conditions and requires no stoichiometric additives. Allylation of the intermediate alpha-sulfonyl anion is more rapid than racemization, leading to a highly enantiospecific process. Density functional theory calculations indicate that the barrier for racemization is 9.9 kcal/mol, so the barrier for allylation must be <9.9 kcal/mol.