Full Paper
tion of the alkyne with alkyl halides. Herein, we show that by
using suitable base metal catalysts (Cu, Ni, Co), such in-situ-
formed alkenylzinc intermediates can be coupled to a wide
range of sp-, sp2-, and sp3-hybridized carbon electrophiles to
afford an array of trisubstituted alkenes[11] with high stereo-
chemical control (Scheme 1B).
However, the yields dropped significantly when a lower load-
ing of the bipy ligand (15 mol%) or CuI (10 mol%) was used
(Table 1, entries 11 and 12). Without CuI, the yield was much
lower (Table 1, entry 13).
The optimized conditions given in Table 1 were then applied
for the cross-coupling of a large number of alkenylzinc re-
agents with bromoalkynes (Scheme 2).[16] Terminal aryl alkynes
containing electron-rich aryl groups, that is, compounds 2a,
2d, 2h, 2l, 2o, and 2q, electron-deficient aryl groups, that is
compounds 2b and 2c and electron-neutral aryl groups, that
is, compounds 2v–2x, could be used to generate the corre-
sponding alkenylzinc reagents for subsequent coupling pro-
cesses. Acyclic (i.e., compounds 2a, 2h, 2j, and 2o) and cyclic
secondary alkyl iodides (compounds 2c, 2l, and 2m), as well
as tertiary alkyl iodides (compounds 2p–2r), served as suitable
reaction partners for the in situ synthesis of alkenylzinc re-
agents, leading to trisubstituted enynes in synthetically useful
yields after the Negishi coupling. The use of primary iodide,
however, only led to a modest yield of the enyne (compound
2n), likely due to the inefficient generation of the alkenylzinc
reagent in the Fe-catalyzed carbozincation step.[10] The scope
of bromoalkynes is also large. Functionalized (bromoethynyl)-
benzenes bearing both electron-donating groups, that is, com-
pounds 2a, 2h, 2o and 2q, and electron-withdrawing groups,
that is, compounds 2b, 2e–2g, 2i–2k, and 2p, at different po-
sitions could be coupled in good yields. Moreover, the cou-
pling reactions tolerated propiolate (compound 2s), propiol-
amide (compound 2t), phenylpropynone moieties (compound
2z), as well as functionalized alkyl (compounds 2u and 2aa)
and carbazole groups (compound 2y). Base-sensitive groups,
including nitro (compound 2g), nitrile (compound 2i), keto
(compounds 2j, 2u, and 2z), ester (compounds 2k and 2s)
and amide groups (compound 2t), were tolerated as well. Sig-
nificantly, the stereoselectivity of the products was high to ex-
cellent (E/Zꢀ9:1 to E/Z>50:1). To the best of our knowledge,
the synthesis of functionalized (E)-enynes is rarely reported.[17]
This protocol would provide a general method to prepare a va-
riety of stereoselective (E)-enynes from readily available alke-
nylzinc reagents and haloalkynes.
Results and Discussion
The cross-coupling of Z-alkenylzinc intermediates with bro-
moalkynes was first studied.[12] Initially, the alkenylzinc reagent
1b was prepared by using the procedure optimized for Z-
olefin synthesis.[10] Because Cu was used as a catalyst in the
cross-coupling reactions of cyclic alkenylzinc reagents with
bromoalkynes,[13,14] we have chosen a Cu catalyst for the analo-
gous coupling of acyclic alkenylzinc reagents. In the presence
of CuCl (20 mol%) and the 2,2’-dibypridyl ligand (bipy,
20 mol%), compound 1b (in excess, up to 1.4 equiv assuming
a 100% yield for the carbozincation) reacted with (bromoethy-
nyl)benzene in tetrahydrofuran at room temperature to give
the (E)-enyne product in 49% GC yield (Table 1, entry 1). The
ligand bipy was superior than other nitrogen- and phosphine-
type ligands (Table 1, entries 2–4). When iodotrimethylsilane
(TMSI, 10 mol%) instead of iodine (2 mol%) was used as the
Zn-activating reagent, the coupling yield was improved to
87% (Table 1, entry 5). Presumably, TMSI readily reacted with
the residual water in the solvent, preserving the alkenylzinc re-
agent for cross-coupling.[15] The loading of the CuCl could be
lowered to 15 mol% without a diminishment of the yield
(Table 1, entry 6). Various Cu catalysts were also screened
(Table 1, entries 7–10), and CuI was found to be the optimal
catalyst to promote the highest yield (95%, Table 1, entry 7).
Table 1. Optimization of the sequential Fe-catalyzed anti-carbozincation
of alkynes and the Cu-catalyzed alkenyl–alkynyl Negishi coupling.[a]
The cross-coupling of alkenylzinc reagents with aryl halides
was then studied by using ethyl 4-bromobenzoate as a test
substrate (Table 2).[12] As Ni catalysts were commonly utilized in
the Negishi couplings of arylzinc reagents with aryl and alkenyl
halides,[3i,18] we have chosen a Ni catalyst for the analogous
coupling of the alkenylzinc reagents. With [Ni(cod)2] (20 mol%)
as the Ni precursor, bipy (20 mol%) was the best ligand
among many nitrogen- and phosphine-based mono- and bi-
dentate ligands for the reaction of compound 1b (1.25 equiv)
with 4-bromobenzoate (1 equiv) (Table 2, entries 1–7), giving
the a-arylated styrene in 64% GC yield (Table 2, entry 5). When
a higher loading of compound 1b (1.4 equiv) was used, the
loadings of [Ni(cod)2] and bipy could be reduced to 10 and
15 mol%, respectively, giving the product in 76% yield
(Table 2, entry 9). [Ni(cod)2] was a better Ni precursor than
other NiII pre-catalysts (Table 2, entries 8 and 12; entries 9 and
11).[19] Without a Ni catalyst, only a low yield was obtained
(Table 2, entry 13).
Entry
Additive
([mol%])
CuX
([mol%])
Ligand
([mol%])
GC yield
[%]
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
I2 (2)
I2 (2)
I2 (2)
I2 (2)
TMSI (10)
TMSI (10)
TMSI (10)
TMSI (10)
TMSI (10)
TMSI (10)
TMSI (10)
TMSI (10)
TMSI (10)
CuCl (20)
CuCl (20)
CuCl (20)
CuCl (20)
CuCl (20)
CuCl (15)
CuI (15)
CuBr (15)
CuSCN (15)
CuCN (15)
CuI (15)
bipy (20)
49
46
48
28
87
91
95
83
87
89
79
83
41
phenanthroline (20)
TMEDA (20)
dppe[b] (20)
bipy (20)
bipy (20)
bipy (20)
bipy (20)
bipy (20)
bipy (20)
bipy (15)
CuI (10)
CuI (0)
bipy (20)
bipy (20)
[a] The reaction was based on 0.1 mmol of bromoalkyne. The GC yield
was determined by using n-dodecane as an internal standard. [b] Dppe=
1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane.
Chem. Eur. J. 2015, 21, 18439 – 18444
18440
ꢀ 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim