Angewandte
Communications
Chemie
À
C H Activation
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Palladium-Catalyzed Directed para C H Functionalization of Phenols
Tuhin Patra, Sukdev Bag, Rajesh Kancherla, Anirban Mondal, Aniruddha Dey,
Sandeep Pimparkar, Soumitra Agasti, Atanu Modak, and Debabrata Maiti*
À
Abstract: Various practical methods for the selective C H
functionalization of the ortho and recently also of the meta
position of an arene have already been developed. Following
our recent development of the directing-group-assisted para
À
C H functionalization of toluene derivatives, we herein report
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the first remote para C H functionalization of phenol
derivatives by using a recyclable silicon-containing biphenyl-
based template. The effectiveness of this strategy was illustrated
with different synthetic elaborations and by the synthesis of
various phenol-based natural products.
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R
ecent years have witnessed the emergence of C H
activation as an effective method for the synthesis of complex
molecules.[1] As evident from several examples in nature,
chemical transformations that involve the functionalization of
À
C H bonds are coined to be efficient when they proceed with
a commendable degree of selectivity.[2–5] One strategy for
ensuring a highly selective functionalization entails the use of
a directing group.[6] This approach has been significantly
exploited in the last two decades to selectively activate the
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Scheme 1. Directed para C H functionalization of phenols.
ortho[7] and more recently the meta C H bonds
of arenes
Following our previous report[10] and in order to optimize
the template design, a biphenyl moiety was employed as part
of the template chain along with a silicon center with two
bulky isopropyl groups as the ligation center (Scheme 1b,
S1).[14] Switching the connecting carbon and oxygen atoms in
our previous template led to a modified system for the para
[8,9]
À
À
containing multiple C H bonds with very similar intrinsic
reactivity. However, the effective employment of such
À
a strategy for the selective activation of a para C H bond
has remained extremely difficult. This was attributed to the
problems associated with forming a large cyclophane-like
metallacycle, which is required for the functionalization of
C H functionalization of phenol.[15] This modification ensures
À
À
a C H bond situated far away from the coordinating func-
that the donor nitrile group will be placed at a position
suitable for the formation of the desired metallacycle in the
transition state. The end-on coordination by the directing
moiety leads to a suitable placement of the weakly held
electrophile through the cyclophane 17-membered transition
state.
With template S1 in hand, we attempted the palladium-
catalyzed olefination of phenol in the presence of AgOAc as
the oxidant. Consistent with our expectations, the para C H
olefination product was formed in 84% yield (isolated in
82%) with 10:1 selectivity in the presence of N-acetylglycine
as the ligand. The crucial role of the template morphology was
corroborated by the complete loss of selectivity for the
olefination of anisole, tert-butyldimethyl(phenoxy)silane, and
simple phenol.[16] Importantly, the requirement for a suitably
tional group. The need for an optimum chain length poses
a further impediment towards devising a template that would
enable the facilitated delivery of the electrophile through
a weakly coordinating donor group. Overcoming these
challenges, our group recently reported the first template-
[10]
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directed para C H functionalization of toluene derivatives.
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To date, C H activation reactions with phenol derivatives
À
have predominantly occurred at the ortho and meta position
in the presence of a suitable template,[11,12] or selectivity was
based exclusively on steric and electronic bias.[5,13] The
directing-group-assisted para-selective functionalization of
such a molecule would effectively overrule its vulnerability
towards electrophilic attack at both the 2- and 4-position
(Scheme 1a).
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located donor to activate the para C H bond was further
confirmed by the poor yield achieved with template S2.
[*] T. Patra, S. Bag, Dr. R. Kancherla, A. Mondal, A. Dey, S. Pimparkar,
S. Agasti, A. Modak, Prof. Dr. D. Maiti
Department of Chemistry
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Proceeding further with our investigation, the para C H
functionalization of various substituted phenol derivatives
with both electron-donating and electron-withdrawing groups
was explored (2a–2x, Table 1). Mono-ortho-substituted
derivatives were found to be suitable substrates (2b–2e). To
confirm the role of the directing template in overruling the
probable electronic bias, electron-withdrawing groups were
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Powai, Mumbai 400076 (India)
E-mail: dmaiti@chem.iitb.ac.in
Supporting information for this article can be found under:
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 7751 –7755
ꢀ 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
7751