Mechanism of Cu/Pd-catalyzed decarboxylative cross-couplings: a DFT investigation

The reaction mechanism of decarboxylative cross-couplings of benzoates with aryl halides to give biaryls, which is cooperatively catalyzed by copper/palladium systems, was investigated with DFT methods. The geometries and energies of all starting materials, products, intermediates, and transition states of the catalytic cycle were calculated for the two model reactions of potassium 2- and 4-fluorobenzoate with bromobenzene in the presence of a catalyst system consisting of copper(I)/1,10-phenanthroline and the anionic monophosphine palladium complex [Pd(PMe3)Br](-). Several neutral and anionic pathways were compared, and a reasonable catalytic cycle was identified. The key finding is that the transmetalation has a comparably high barrier as the decarboxylation, which was previously believed to be solely rate-determining. The electronic activation energy of the transmetalation is rather reasonable, but the free energy loss in the initial Cu/Pd adduct formation is high. These results suggested that research aimed at further improving the catalyst should target potentially bridging bidentate ligands likely to assist in the formation of bimetallic intermediates. Experimental studies confirm this somewhat counterintuitive prediction. With a bidentate, potentially bridging ligand, designed to support the formation of bimetallic adducts, the reaction temperature for decarboxylative couplings was reduced by 70 °C to only 100 °C.