Angewandte
Communications
Chemie
Iron Catalysis
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Expedient Iron-Catalyzed C H Allylation/Alkylation by Triazole
Assistance with Ample Scope
Gianpiero Cera, Tobias Haven, and Lutz Ackermann*
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Abstract: Triazole assistance set the stage for a unified strategy
reactions, 2) a versatile catalyst that enabled a plethora of C
À
for the iron-catalyzed C H allylation of arenes, heteroarenes,
H allylation and alkylation reactions of arenes and alkenes,
and 3) a novel protocol for the removal of the TAM auxiliary
under exceedingly mild reaction conditions.
and alkenes with ample scope. The versatile catalyst also
proved competent for site-selective methylation, benzylation,
and alkylation with challenging primary and secondary
At the outset of our studies, we probed the unprecedented
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halides. Triazole-assisted C H activation proceeded chemo-,
use of inexpensive and readily available allyl chlorides 2 in the
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site-, and diastereo-selectively, and the modular TAM directing
group was readily removed in a traceless fashion under
exceedingly mild reaction conditions.
iron-catalyzed C H functionalization of triazolyldimethyl
(TAM) amide 1a (Table 1, see also Tables S1–S4 in the
[a]
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Table 1: Optimization of the iron-catalyzed C H allylation.
T
he selective ortho-functionalization of carboxylic acid
derivatives is a major challenge in organic synthesis. In
contrast to established strategies,[1] transition-metal-catalyzed
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C H alkylation has emerged as a particularly versatile
[2]
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approach for step-economical C C bond formation. C H
alkylation and allylation reactions have mostly involved
catalysts based on precious 4d transition metals; however,
these protocols often suffer from long reaction times, high
reaction temperatures, and/or moderate selectivities.[3,4] Very
recently, considerable progress has been made with inex-
Entry
[Fe]
Ligand
3aa [%][b]
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
[Fe(acac)3]
[Fe(acac)3]
FeCl2
FeCl3
[Fe(acac)3]
–
dppen
dppbz
dppe
dppe
dppe
–
17
14
75
85
84
–
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pensive iron complexes to establish novel C C forming
processes.[5] A particularly powerful approach involves the
use of a bidentate directing group developed by Daugulis and
co-workers.[6] This directing group derived from 8-amino-
[Fe(acac)3]
dppe
12[c]
[a] Reaction conditions: 1a (0.20 mmol), [Fe] (10 mol%), ligand
(15 mol%), PhMgBr (0.75 mmol), 2a (0.75 mmol), THF (0.1m), 658C,
30 min. [b] Yield of the isolated product. [c] The AQ-derived auxiliary was
used instead of the TAM group. acac=acetylacetonate, Bn=benzyl,
dppen=cis-1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethylene, dppe=1,2-bis(diphe-
nylphosphino)ethane, dppbz=1,2-bisdiphenylphosphinobenzene.
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quinoline (8-AQ) enables ortho-selective C H allylation and
alkylation reactions, as were devised by Nakamura and co-
workers, with important contributions by Cook and co-
workers.[7] These transformations were restricted to the AQ
motif, the structural modification of which is challenging.
More importantly, the removal of the bidentate directing
group generally called for harsh reaction conditions, namely,
concentrated HCl at 1308C.[6,7] To address these limitations,
our research group has recently established a novel family of
highly modular bidentate directing groups,[8] which are
Supporting Information).[9] The iron-catalyzed C H allyla-
À
tion with substrate 2a proceeded most efficiently with
catalysts derived from FeCl3 or Fe(acac)3 and the ligand
dppe (Table 1; entries 1–5). A test reaction verified that the
iron catalyst was essential. Notably, the AQ-derived auxiliary
was found to be ineffective under otherwise identical reaction
conditions (Table 1; entry 7), thus illustrating the unique
features of the TAM directing group. Besides allyl chlorides 2,
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particularly effective in promoting iron-catalyzed C H trans-
formations.[8a,c]
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Within our program on sustainable C H functionaliza-
tion, we have now devised a unified strategy for iron-
catalyzed C H allylation/alkylation through triazole assis-
tance. Notable features of our approach include 1) the use of
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allylic phosphonates, sulfonates, carbonates, and acetates
proved to be viable electrophiles for the C H allylation.
[9]
À
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inexpensive iron compounds for challenging C H activation
The optimized catalyst proved amenable to the trans-
formation of various triazole-functionalized benzamides
1 (Table 2). The spiro substitution pattern in the amide
backbone of substrate 1b did not diminish the yield (Table 2,
entry 1), and also N-alkylated or N-arylated triazoles pro-
vided the desired products 3ca and 3da efficiently (entries 2
and 3). Notably, our triazolylmethylamide (TAH)[8b,d] direct-
[*] Dr. G. Cera, T. Haven, Prof. Dr. L. Ackermann
Institut für Organische und Biomolekulare Chemie
Georg-August-Universität
Tammannstrasse 2, 37077 Gçttingen (Germany)
E-mail: Lutz.Ackermann@chemie.uni-goettingen.de
À
ing group (in 1e) was found to be unsuitable for the C H
transformation (Table 2, entry 4).
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
1484
ꢀ 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 1484 –1488