Communications
DOI: 10.1002/anie.200904916
À
C C Coupling
Copper-Catalyzed Decarboxylative Cross-Coupling of Potassium
Polyfluorobenzoates with Aryl Iodides and Bromides**
Rui Shang, Yao Fu, Yan Wang, Qing Xu, Hai-Zhu Yu, and Lei Liu*
Transition-metal-catalyzed decarboxylative cross-coupling
using carboxylic acids as aryl sources is of contemporary
interest.[1] This method does not use expensive and sensitive
organometallic reagents, and generates CO2 instead of toxic
metal halides. Early studies showed that a stoichiometric
quantity of copper could promote the decarboxylative
coupling of aromatic carboxylic acids with aryl iodides.[2]
Recently, Goossen et al. reported Pd/Cu-catalyzed decarbox-
ylative coupling of benzoic acids and a-oxo carboxylates with
aryl halides and triflates.[3] Related studies by the groups of
Myers,[4] Forgione,[5] and others[6–9] showed that palladium by
itself could also catalyze the decarboxylative coupling of
aromatic carboxylic acids. We reported a palladium-catalyzed
decarboxylative coupling of oxalate monoesters with aryl
halides,[10] and related decarboxylative reactions were also
reported recently by the groups of Tunge, Li, Chruma, and
others.[11]
Goossen et al. reported the copper-catalyzed protodecarbox-
ylation of aromatic carboxylic acids.[18] Nonetheless, there has
not been any example for copper-catalyzed decarboxylative
coupling of acids with aryl halides. Therefore, the reactions
reported herein represent a novel type of copper-catalyzed
cross-coupling reactions.[19,20]
Our work started with the decarboxylative coupling of
C6F5COOK with PhI. When 10 mol% of CuI/1,10-phenan-
throline was used as the catalyst, decarboxylation proceeded
rapidly in NMP at 1608C but the yield of the desired product
was only 10%. To improve the yield we lowered the reaction
temperature and found that the best compromise between the
reaction rate and yield is achieved at 1308C. However, the
optimal yield remained at about 40% after we examined
many combinations of solvents and ligands. A breakthrough
was then made when diglyme was used as the solvent, and the
optimal yield obtained was 99% with or even without the
ligand.
Herein we describe the first, copper-only systems that
catalyze the decarboxylative coupling of potassium polyfluor-
obenzoates with aryl iodides and bromides [Eq. (1)].[12] The
A possible explanation for the outstanding performance
of diglyme is that diglyme can coordinate to K+, thereby
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facilitating the complexation between CuI and C6F5CO2
.
Extending the model reaction to other substrates showed that
both electron-rich and electron-poor aryl iodides could be
successfully converted and a range of functional groups were
tolerated (Table 1, entries 2–12). The reaction yields range
from good to excellent. Importantly, ortho substitution can be
well tolerated in the transformation (Table 1, entries 13–16).
In addition to phenyl iodides, other aryl substrates including
naphthyl, perfluorophenyl, and heteroaryl iodides can also be
used to produce the corresponding polyfluorobiaryls (Table 1,
entries 18–24).
importance of the study is twofold: 1) The new reactions can
replace the use of expensive but often less reactive[13]
fluorobenzene organometallics in the synthesis of polyfluor-
obiaryls, which are important molecules in medicinal chemis-
try[14] and material science.[15] They also provide a method
complementary to that reported by Fagnou and co-workers[16]
and Daugulis and co-workers[17] for fluorobiaryl synthesis
The above protocol can be applied to aryl iodides but not
aryl bromides. This problem can be solved by using 1,10-
phenanthroline as a ligand. As shown in Table 2, copper-
catalyzed decarboxylative cross-couplings between potassium
pentafluorobenzoate and a variety of aryl bromides display
high yields ranging from 88 to 99%. These coupling reactions
can tolerate both electron-rich and electron-poor substrates
(Table 2, entries 1–9) and can also tolerate ortho substitution
(Table 2, entries 14–16). In addition, heteroaryl bromides are
acceptable substrates in the reaction (Table 2, entries 17–20).
Notably, copper-catalyzed decarboxylative cross-coupling of
potassium pentafluorobenzoate with 1-bromoadamantane
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through C H arylation of a polyfluoroarene. 2) Recently
[*] R. Shang, Prof. Dr. Y. Fu, Y. Wang, Q. Xu, H.-Z. Yu, Prof. Dr. L. Liu
Department of Chemistry
University of Science and Technology of China
Hefei 230026 (China)
and
Tsinghua University
Beijing 100084 (China)
Fax: (+86)10-6277-1149
E-mail: lliu@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
3
2
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produces a C(sp ) C(sp ) bond [Eq. (2)]. Moreover, the
method can be used to synthesize polyfluorostilbene in high
yields from vinyl bromides [Eq. (3)].[24]
The scope of the reaction with respect to fluoroarene is
presented in Table 3. Although diglyme is important for the
reactions with potassium pentafluorobenzoate, dimethyl
acetamide (DMA) affords better results for fluoroarenes
[**] This work was supported by NSFC (20832004, 20802040), and the Li
Foundation.
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
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ꢀ 2009 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 9350 –9354