Communications
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201002745
cine Substitution
Selective cine Substitution of 1-Arylethenyl Acetates with Arylboron
Reagents and a Diene/Rhodium Catalyst**
Jung-Yi Yu, Ryosuke Shimizu, and Ryoichi Kuwano*
Nucleophilic substitution is a fundamental reaction in organic
synthesis. In the reaction, the nucleophile normally attacks on
the carbon atom bonded to a leaving group. However, the
attack sometimes occurs at the adjacent position and forms a
cine-substitution product.[1] Most of the reported cine substi-
tutions have been observed in the reactions of electrophilic
aromatic compounds with nucleophiles.[2] The unusual regio-
selectivity has been rare in the reaction of alkenyl electro-
philes. Only alkenyl sulfones,[3] tosylates,[4,5] and phos-
phates[5,6] were known to react with organometals on the b-
carbon atoms of the leaving group through transition-metal
catalysis.[7] Recently, we reported that a phosphine/rhodium
complex promoted the coupling of 1-phenylethenyl acetate
with an arylboronic acid to exclusively produce the ipso-
substitution product, 1,1-diarylethene [Eq. (1)].[8,9] During
the course of the study, the cine substitution was observed
when the reaction was conducted in the absence of the
phosphine ligand. Herein, we report a rhodium-catalyzed
cine substitution of alkenyl acetates with arylboronic acids
[Eq. (2)]. The unusual regiochemistry was caused by the
chelation of a diene ligand to the rhodium catalyst.
Table 1: Optimization of the rhodium catalyst for cine substitution of
1-phenylethenyl acetate (1a) with phenylboronic acid (2a).[a]
Entry
[Rh]
Additive[b]
Yield of Yield of
3a [%][c] 4a [%][c]
1
2
[{RhCl(cod)}2]
[{RhCl(cod)}2]
dppb (5)
<1
26
14
4
–
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
[{RhCl(nbd)}2]
–
–
–
<1
<1
<1
18
38
<1
42
80
62
19
3
3
<1
1
4
[{RhCl(coe)2}2]
[{RhCl(C2H4)2}2]
[{RhCl(C2H4)2]2]
[Rh(cod)2]BF4
[Rh(nbd)2]SbF6
[{Rh(OAc)(cod)}2]
[{Rh(OAc)(cod)}2]
[{Rh(OAc)(cod)}2]
cod (10)
–
–
–
5
8
tAmOH (100)
iPr2NH (100)
13
5
[{Rh(OAc)(cod)}2] cod (10), tAmOH (100)
69
(75)[d]
71
(6)[d]
5
13
[{Rh(OAc)(cod)}2] cod (10), iPr2NH (100)
(85)[d]
8
(5)[d]
14[e] [{Rh(OAc)(cod)}2] cod (10), iPr2NH (100)
<1
[a] Reactions were conducted in toluene (1.0 mL) for 3 h. The ratio of 1a
(0.20 mmol)/2a/K3PO4/[Rh] was 100:150:300:5.0. [b] The amount of
each additive (mol% to 1a) was indicated in parentheses. [c] GC yield
(average of two runs). [d] GC yields after 24 h are indicated in the
parentheses. [e] The reaction was conducted without K3PO4. dppb=1,4-
bis(diphenylphosphino)butane, cod=cycloocta-1,5-diene, nbd=nor-
borna-2,5-diene, coe=cyclooctene, tAm=1,1-dimethylpropyl.
bisphosphine (Table 1, entry 2). When the cod ligand was
replaced by norborna-2,5-diene,[10] cyclooctene, or ethylene,
no formation of the cine-substitution product, stilbene (3a),
was observed (Table 1, entries 3–5). These observations
suggest that the coordination of cod to rhodium is crucial
for the cine substitution. Indeed, [{RhCl(ethylene)2}2] prefer-
entially catalyzed the cine-substitution reaction in the pres-
ence of cod (Table 1, entry 6).[11] As compared to the diene
ligand, the anionic ligand or counteranion on the rhodium
atom did not affect the regioselectivity (Table 1, entries 7 and
9). The yield of 3a improved remarkably by the addition of
tert-amyl alcohol or diisopropylamine (Table 1, entries 10 and
11).[12] The addition of cod brought about further enhance-
ment of the production of 3a when diisopropylamine was
chosen as the additive (Table 1, entry 13). Furthermore,
potassium phosphate was indispensable for successful cine
substitution (Table 1, entry 14). The catalyst loading could be
reduced to 3 mol% under the optimized conditions (Table 2,
entry 1). The cine-substitution product 3a was isolated in
75% yield.
In our previous study,[8] the reaction of 1-phenylethenyl
acetate (1a) with phenylboronic acid (2a) was attempted in
the presence of a [{RhCl(cod)}2]/dppb catalyst, which pro-
duced the typical cross-coupling product 4a exclusively
(Table 1, entry 1). To our surprise, the cine substitution
proceeded selectively in the absence of the bidentate
[*] Dr. J.-Y. Yu, R. Shimizu, Prof. Dr. R. Kuwano
Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Sciences, Kyushu
University
6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8581 (Japan)
Fax: (+81)92-642-2572
E-mail: rkuwano@chem.kyushu-univ.jp
[**] This work was partly supported by KAKENHI (No. 19020051) and by
a Grant-in-Aid for the Global COE Program, “Science for Future
Molecular Systems” from MEXT.
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
6396
ꢀ 2010 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010, 49, 6396 –6399