COMMUNICATION
DOI: 10.1002/chem.201101300
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Palladium-Catalyzed Regioselective Aerobic Oxidative C H/N H
Carbonylation of Heteroarenes under Base-Free Conditions
Hua Zhang,[a] Dong Liu,[a] Caiyou Chen,[a] Chao Liu,[a] and Aiwen Lei*[a, b]
Transition-metal-catalyzed alkoxycarbonylation reactions
usually involve aryl halide ArX as the electrophile and CO/
ROH as the nucleophile (Scheme 1, Path 1). As an alterna-
Recently, the oxidative carbonylation of an aryl metal re-
agent ArM (M=In, B) has emerged as a new alternative to-
wards “classic carbonylation”.[3] However, the preparation
of ArM also involves the prefunctionalization of ArH and a
stoichiometric amount of metal wastes is produced. Evident-
ly, the direct utilization of ArH in carbonylation reaction
would be attractive for preparation of carbonyl compounds,
as it shortens synthetic routes and presents an environmen-
tally friendly protocol.
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During the past decade, Pd-catalyzed aromatic C H func-
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tionalization to form C C and C X bonds has been inten-
sively investigated.[4] However, C H activation/carbonyla-
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tion catalyzed by PdII remains an outstanding challenge
since the depalladation process is often complicated by the
reduction of PdII to Pd0 under a CO atmosphere.[5] Benzene
was firstly carbonylated to benzoic acid by using Pd cataly-
sis, in which the substrate was used as the solvent and
K2S2O8 as the oxidant.[6] Recently, after the Pd-catalyzed
carboxylation of benzoic and phenylacetic acid,[7] the direct
Scheme 1. Transition-metal-catalyzed alkoxycarbonylation with CO.
tive avenue, the oxidative carbonylation between an aryl
metal ArM and CO/ROH by employing stoichiometric
amount of oxidants has recently attracted increasing atten-
tion (Scheme 1, Path 3). Apparently, if simple arenes ArH
were directly employed as the nucleophile and air or O2 as
the terminal oxidant in oxidative carbonylation, this chal-
lenging transformation will present an attractive and sustain-
able approach towards the synthesis of carbonyl compounds
(Scheme 1, Path 2).
Carboxylic acids and derivatives (e.g., esters) are valuable
commodity chemicals and useful synthetic building blocks
for agrochemicals, active pharmaceutical ingredients and
process chemicals. Since the pioneering work of Heck and
co-workers in 1974,[1] transition-metal-catalyzed carbonyla-
tion reactions of aromatic halides ArX in the presence of
CO and ROH affording ArCO2R have undergone rapid de-
velopment and been widely applied in industry in the last
several decades,[2] whereas ArX is usually prepared from the
corresponding ArH and a stoichiometric amount of bases is
required to facilitate the reaction.
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ortho-selective carbonylation of aromatic C H bonds in the
presence of inorganic salts or benzoquinone as the oxidants
attracted widespread attention.[8] However, extending the
scope of ArH and employing an environmentally benign ter-
minal oxidant, such as air or O2, are still emerging challeng-
es in this area.[9]
Heterocyclic carboxylic acids and derivatives are impor-
tant structural motifs that are widely found in pharmaceuti-
cally important molecules and synthetically useful fine
chemicals.[10] To the best of our knowledge, direct C H car-
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bonylation of heteroarenes to construct an ester functional
group has remained almost unexplored.[11] Herein, we report
a novel and efficient protocol for the Pd-catalyzed aerobic
C H carbonylation of heteroarenes to form esters under
base-free conditions. In addition, the reaction conditions are
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also amendable to N H carbonylation to afford indole car-
bamates.
Our experiment was initiated by treating N-methyl indole
(1a) with n-butanol (2a) in the presence of a balloon pres-
sure of CO (Table 1). By optimizing the various reaction pa-
rameters, the best results were obtained with a catalytic
amount of PdCl2ACHTNUTRGENN(UG PPh3)2, PPh3, and CuACHTUGNTERN(NUGN OAc)2 in a mixed
solvent of toluene and DMSO using air as the terminal oxi-
dant (Table 1, entry 1).
With these conditions, a 71% yield of butyl 1-methyl-1H-
indole-3-carboxylate (3a) was obtained within 36 h at 1008C
using 2.5 mol% of PdCl2ACHTUNRGTNEUNG(PPh3)2. The functionalization selec-
[a] H. Zhang, D. Liu, C. Chen, C. Liu, Prof. A. Lei
The College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences
Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei (P.R. China)
Fax : (+86)27-68754067
[b] Prof. A. Lei
State Key Laboratory for Oxo Synthesis and Selective Oxidation
Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
730000, Lanzhou (P.R. China)
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
Chem. Eur. J. 2011, 17, 9581 – 9585
ꢀ 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
9581