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Published on: November 12, 2016
Epoxides as Alkylating Reagents for the Catellani Reaction
Hong-Gang Cheng1, Chenggui Wu1, Han Chen1
1College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China.
Abstract:
We report a cooperative catalytic system comprising a PdII complex, XPhos, and the potassium salt of 5-norbornene-2-carboxylic acid that enables the use of epoxides as alkylating reagents in the Catellani reaction, thereby expanding the existing paradigm of this powerful transformation. The potassium salt of inexpensive 5-norbornene-2-carboxylic acid acts as both mediator and base in the process. This mild, chemoselective, scalable, and atom-economical protocol is compatible with a wide variety of readily available functionalized aryl iodides and epoxides, as well as terminating olefins. The resulting products undergo facile oxa-Michael addition to furnish ubiquitous isochroman scaffolds.
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