Angewandte
Communications
Chemie
Lewis Acid Catalysis
À
Friedel–Crafts-Type Intermolecular C H Silylation of Electron-Rich
Arenes Initiated by Base-Metal Salts
Qin Yin, Hendrik F. T. Klare, and Martin Oestreich*
Abstract: An electrophilic aromatic substitution (SEAr) with
a catalytically generated silicon electrophile is reported.
Essentially any commercially available base-metal salt acts as
an initiator/catalyst when activated with NaBArF4 . The thus-
generated Lewis acid then promotes the SEAr of electron-rich
À
arenes with hydrosilanes but not halosilanes. This new C H
silylation was optimized for FeCl2 /NaBArF4 , affording good
yields at catalyst loadings as low as 0.5 mol%. The procedure
is exceedingly straightforward and comes close to typical
Friedel–Crafts methods, where no added base is needed to
absorb the released protons.
T
he installation of silicon groups at arenes by electrophilic
aromatic substitution (SEAr) was identified as an important
synthetic goal nearly four decades ago.[1] However, this
seemingly straightforward challenge has not lost its relevance
because, then as now, there have been no practical solutions
reported.[2,3] The key issue is that the Brønsted acid released
in SEAr rapidly triggers the reverse reaction, known as
protodesilylation. Hence, protons must be absorbed irrever-
sibly from this equilibrium. This was achieved by using neutral
Me3SiOTf and Et3N as solvent in the C3-selective silylation of
indoles and pyrroles (e.g., 1!2; Scheme 1, top).[4] Recent
variations employing Ph3SiH activated by stoichiometric
[Ph3C]+[B(C6F5)4]À or catalytic B(C6F5)3 (not shown) also
require the addition of a base.[5] An alternative approach
involves catalytic generation of the silicon electrophile by
À
Scheme 1. C H silylation of electron-rich heterocycles by SEAr.
ArF =3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl, Dmp=2,6-dimesitylphenyl,
rs=regioselectivity, Tf=trifluoromethanesulfonyl.
We selected the electrophilic silylation of electron-rich
N,N-dimethylaniline as a model reaction (4!5; Table 1). The
Lewis acid FeCl2 was used as the catalyst, and the halosilanes
Me2PhSiCl and Me2PhSiI, as well as the hydrosilane
Me2PhSiH were chosen as the silylating agents. As expected,
treatment of 4 in the presence of FeCl2 (5 mol%) with excess
(5 equiv) of either of these reagents at 1008C for prolonged
reaction times did not show any conversion (Table 1,
entries 1–3). To boost the Lewis acidity of FeCl2, we decided
À
À
cooperative Si H bond activation of hydrosilanes at the Ru
S bond of tethered cationic complexes.[6] After transfer of the
to add equimolar amounts of NaBArF , based on the catalyst
4
+
À
silicon cation from the [S Si] site to the nucleophilic
employed. This usually brings in the weakly coordinating
heterocycle, the sulfur atom acts as an internal base,
eventually forming dihydrogen (e.g., 1!3; Scheme 1,
bottom).[7] These transformations have essentially remained
tetrakis[3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]borate
anion
as
a replacement for the chloride ligand. This technique is
often used to transform well-defined neutral metal complexes
into cationic ones, but we are not aware of examples of its
application to conventional metal salts. We hoped to form
À
the only examples of intermolecular electrophilic C H
silylation.[8–10] We demonstrate in this work that activated
base-metal salts are also capable of initiating or catalyzing the
“[FeCl]+[BArF ]À”, although the actual structure, in other
4
À
silylation of arene C H bonds with hydrosilanes but not
words, its degree of aggregation or composition, is likely to be
more complicated. The additive had no or little effect on the
reactions with the halosilanes but changed the outcome with
the hydrosilane dramatically (entries 4–6). The FeCl2/
chlorosilanes. The new procedure almost resembles the
Friedel–Crafts reaction in its classical sense, with no addition
of base required.[11]
NaBArF catalyst system afforded 5 regioselectively with
4
87% conversion in 70% yield. NaBArF alone did not
4
[12]
À
promote the C H silylation (entries 7–9).
We repeated
[*] Dr. Q. Yin, Dr. H. F. T. Klare, Prof. Dr. M. Oestreich
Institut für Chemie, Technische Universität Berlin
Strasse des 17. Juni 115, 10623 Berlin (Germany)
E-mail: martin.oestreich@tu-berlin.de
the reactions of the halosilanes with 2,6-lutidine as a proton
scavenger (entries 10 and 11). While the reaction with the
chlorosilane was again unsuccessful, the iodosilane indeed
reacted, converting 4 into 5 with 65% conversion. Control
experiments with FeCl2/2,6-lutidine or 2,6-lutidine alone
Supporting information and ORCID(s) from the author(s) for this
confirmed that NaBArF as an additive is necessary
4
(entries 12–14). This outcome corroborates the fact that
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ꢀ 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 3204 –3207