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diethyl zinc producing the desired product 4 in 85% yield
(Scheme 3).
A wide variety of aryl and heteroaryl as well as vinyl
tion.[4,9d,10g,26] For example, derivatives of menthol, cholester-
ol, loratadine or clofibric acid as well as estrone and arbutin
could be converted in good to high yields (Table 2, 39–46).
We next investigated the scope of the transformation with
regard to the zinc reagents (Table 3). Not only linear, but also
branched zinc enolates 2d were successfully coupled, which is
of substantial interest given the importance of the phenyl-
propenyl substructure. At this stage, the coupling of a,a-
disubstituted Reformatsky reagents gave only unsatisfactory
yields (see SI). Starting from commercially available 2-
bromo-6-methoxynaphthalene, the naproxen ester 50 was
obtained in almost quantitative yield. Amide enolates, even
with Weinreb-type reactivity, which are easily prepared from
Zn(TMP)2 or lithium enolates,[14b,27] were also successfully
coupled (Table 3, 51–53). The YPhos-Pd catalyst also allows
the room-temperature Negishi cross-coupling[28] of primary or
secondary alkyl-, benzyl-, and arylzinc reagents. Best results
were obtained when using Pd[COD]Cl2 rather than Pd2dba3
as the Pd source (conditions B). At this stage, we have no
explanation why Pd[COD]Cl2, which is almost ineffective as
the Pd source in the coupling of zinc enolates, is a superior Pd
precursor for other organozinc reagents. To our delight,
almost no rearrangement to linear products was observed.
Secondary alkylzinc reagent 2i was converted with 25:1
selectivity in favor of the branched isomer (56); for the
benzylic reagent 2n, solely branched product was observed
(61).
chlorides was successfully coupled with Reformatsky reagent
2a in good yields (Table 2). Suitable substrates range from
electron-deficient (pyrazinyl) to extremely electron-rich (p-
N,N-dimethylamino-phenyl) aryl- or heteroaryl chlorides, and
the scope covers sterically highly demanding groups (o,o-
dimethylphenyl) as well as coordinating pyridine or thio-
phene heterocycles. A wealth of functional groups is toler-
ated, including trifluoromethyl, fluoro, ester, trimethylsilyl,
nitrile, mesylate, and even pinacol boronate (Table 2, 14–17,
20, 22). The efficiency of the coupling is higher for sterically
demanding tert-butyl than for ethyl ester substrates, so that
they are recommended for particularly challenging aryl
chlorides. The performance limit of the system is reached
for 4-chlorophenol, which is likely to be deprotonated by the
enolate leading to an extremely electron-rich chloropheno-
late reluctant to undergo oxidative addition. Still, 4-chloro-
phenol was coupled to give 23 in a yield of 38%. The coupling
of 4-chloroaniline gave only unsatisfactory results, but 4-
bromoaniline gave compound 24 in near-quantitative yield
despite its free NH group (Table 2). The tolerance of these
functionalities is remarkable, especially when considering
À
that Pd-YPhos systems are powerful catalysts also for C N
bond formations. The established reaction protocol also
allowed successful coupling of more complex structures, thus
demonstrating its potential in late-stage functionaliza-
Since the preliminary studies (Table 1) indicated that the
YPhos-Pd complex also convert bromides and triflates to the
coupling products, we next examined a possible discrimina-
tion between the different electrophiles. To this end, we
performed competition experiments in which two electro-
philes were treated with zinc reagents (Scheme 4, Tables S3–
S12).
Table 3: Coupling of aryl chlorides with zinc reagents.
Enolates, alkyl- and arylzinc reagents all gave excellent
selectivities in favor of aryl bromides over triflates. A similar
selectivity pattern was also observed for Q-Phos, whereas X-
Phos was significantly less selective (see Table S13). Remark-
ably, even aryl chlorides were coupled preferentially over
triflates despite their lower inherent leaving group ability.[29]
Conditions A: 0.5 mmol 1, 0.75 mmol 2, 1 mol% Pd2dba3, 2 mol% L3,
0.3 mL THF, 2 equiv. TMEDA, RT, 16 h, yields of isolated product.
Conditions B: 0.5 mmol 1, 0.75 mmol 2, 3 mol% Pd[COD]Cl2, 3 mol%
L3, 0.3 mL THF, RT, 16 h, yields of isolated product. [a] No aryl chloride
but aryl bromide. [b] Using (Et2NCOCH2)2Zn, 2 mol% Pd2dba3, 4 mol%
L3, and 1.5 equiv. LiBr. [c] Zinc reagent was prepared by lithium enolate
with zinc chloride, 0.5 mmol 1, 0.6 mmol amide 2, 1 mol% Pd2dba3,
2 mol% L3, 1 mL THF.
Scheme 4. Selectivity of Br/Cl, Br/OTf, and Cl/OTf coupling with
different zinc reagents. Conditions: 0.25 mmol (1 equiv.) aryl electro-
philes, 1.1–1.5 equiv. zinc reagent 2, 1 mol% Pd2dba3, 2 mol% L3,
2 equiv. additive, 0.3 mL THF, RT or 08C, 16 h. Yields determined by
GC analysis using n-tetradecane or methyl decanoate as internal
standard. For detailed conditions see SI Table S3–S12.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 6778 –6783
ꢀ 2021 The Authors. Angewandte Chemie International Edition published by Wiley-VCH GmbH www.angewandte.org
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