Angewandte
Chemie
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201309084
Synthetic Methods
3
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Chemo- and Regioselective C(sp ) H Arylation of Unactivated
Allylarenes by Deprotonative Cross-Coupling**
Nusrah Hussain, Gustavo Frensch, Jiadi Zhang, and Patrick J. Walsh*
Abstract: The combination of aryl bromides, allylbenzene,
base and a palladium catalyst usually results in a Heck
reaction. Herein we combine these same reagents, but override
the Heck pathway by employing a strong base. In the presence
of LiN(SiMe3)2, allylbenzene derivatives undergo reversible
deprotonation. Transmetalation of the resulting allyllithium
intermediate to LPdAr(Br) and reductive elimination provide
the 1,1-diarylprop-2-enes, which are not accessible by the Heck
reaction. The regioselectivity in this deprotonative cross-
coupling process is catalyst-controlled and very high.
C
atalytic functionalization of unactivated sp3-hybridized
À
C H bonds in the absence of directing groups is highly
desirable, but remains challenging.[1,2] The level difficulty of
these functionalizations increases drastically when regio- and
chemoselectivity issues are present. In our efforts to address
Scheme 1. Overriding Heck coupling: Heck reaction (right) vs. DCCP
of allylbenzene with strong base (left).
such challenges, we recently initiated a program for the
tion and insertion of allylbenzene in the Heck coupling to
transmetalation of the metalated allyl (Scheme 1, left).[11,12]
The catalyst/ligand combination would control the regio-
selectivity of the arylation in the DCCP, thus enabling the
formation of a-arylated products that are inaccessible by the
Heck pathway. It is noteworthy that this approach is distinct
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functionalization of weakly acidic sp -hybridized C H bonds
by palladium-catalyzed deprotonative cross-coupling process-
es (DCCPs). Substrates that have been successfully function-
alized using this approach include diarylmethanes,[3,4] sulf-
oxides,[5] sulfones,[6] amides,[7] and chromium-activated ben-
zylic amines (to produce enantioenriched diarylmethyl-
amines).[8] Based on these results, we hypothesized that it
might be possible to functionalize allylbenzene derivatives
and control chemo- and regioselectivity. Successful develop-
ment of such a process would require: 1) conditions for the
deprotonation of allylbenzene that are amenable to catalysis,
2) catalysts that can promote the regioselective arylation, and
3) control of base reactivity such that the more acidic product
is not deprotonated and isomerized or further functionalized.
Typically, reactions of allylbenzenes with aryl bromides in
the presence of palladium catalysts and base afford Heck-type
g-selective products, often as mixtures of regio- and geometric
isomers (Scheme 1, right).[9,10] We envisioned that a strong
base could divert the chemoselectivity from olefin coordina-
À
from known C H activation/arylations of allylbenzenes and
related substrates.[13]
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Herein, we disclose the first metal-catalyzed C(sp ) H
arylation of allylbenzenes (pKa = 34 in dimethylsulfoxide
(DMSO))[14] with aryl bromides to afford 1,1-diarylprop-2-
enes. A base/catalyst combination [LiN(SiMe3)2/Pd-PCy3] is
advanced that efficiently controls the chemoselectivity and
promotes regioselective DCCP of allylbenzenes in good to
excellent yields (51–97%).
Our first challenge was to identify conditions for the
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deprotonation of allylbenzeneꢀs C(sp ) H. The benzylic
À
C Hꢀs in allylbenzene have traditionally been deprotonated
with n- and sec-BuLi at À788C or with nBuMgCl.[15] These
strong bases, however, are impractical for cross-coupling
reactions because of their limited compatibility with catalysts
and coupling partners. We, therefore, focused on reversible
in situ deprotonation of allylbenzene.
[*] N. Hussain, G. Frensch, J. Zhang, Prof. P. J. Walsh
Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania
231 S. 34th St. Philadelphia, PA 19104 (USA)
E-mail: pwalsh@sas.upenn.edu
As a surrogate for the transmetalation step in the
arylation reaction in Scheme 1, we substituted reaction of
metalated allylbenzene with benzyl chloride (Scheme 2). To
perform the benzylation, we screened six bases [LiN(SiMe3)2,
NaN(SiMe3)2, KN(SiMe3)2, LiOtBu, NaOtBu and KOtBu] at
room temperature in CPME (cyclopentyl methyl ether). As
illustrated in Scheme 2, the bases leading to benzylation
products were: KN(SiMe3)2 affording a 5:1 ratio of a:g (80%
yield), NaN(SiMe3)2 a 4:1 ratio (71% yield), and LiN(SiMe3)2
a 1:1 ratio (13% yield). The a:g ratios observed suggest that
the nature of the metal plays a significant role in the
G. Frensch
Departamento de Quꢀmica, Universidade Federal Do Paranꢁ
CP 19081, 81531–990, Curitiba–PR (Brazil)
[**] P.J.W. acknowledges the NIH (National Institute of General Medical
Sciences GM 104349) and the NSF (CHE-1152488). G.F. acknowl-
edges the Brazilian Science Without Borders program (237849/
2012-7).
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 3693 –3697
ꢀ 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
3693