Communication
the application of diaryliodonium salts in CO2 fixation has not
yet been explored.
trimethylbenzene was also isolated in 91% yield, which could
be reused for the preparation of the diaryliodonium salt 1a,
thus improving the atom-economy of the reaction.[13b,d,g] Exper-
imental results also confirmed that the addition of 2 equiva-
lents of DBU is essential for complete reaction (Table1, en-
tries 2 and 3). The use of other organic or inorganic bases,
such as 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO), triethylamine
(Et3N), Na2CO3, or KOH, resulted in a significant decrease in the
yields (Table1, entries 4–7). Moreover, MeCN was found to be
the best reaction medium for the transformation, whereas
other solvents, such as THF, DMF, or toluene, gave inferior re-
sults (Table1, entries 8–10). Both decreasing and increasing the
reaction temperature led to dramatic decreases in the yield of
the product, which could be due to the lower reaction rate at
lower temperature and the formation of unidentified products
at higher temperature (Table1, entries 11 and 12). Further opti-
mization revealed that 10 equivalents of 2a was required to
obtain satisfactory yield; using 5 equivalents of 2a gave a low
yield (Table1, entry 13). The reaction could even proceed
smoothly under a relatively low CO2 pressure (0.75 MPa) to
give the product in 78% yield (Table1, entry 14). To evaluate
possible reaction pathways, the reaction was also performed in
the presence of 1.2 equivalents of 1,1-diphenylethene (DPE) or
2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol (BHT) as a radical scavenger
(Table1, entries 15 and 16). The results showed that both reac-
tions proceeded with no notable decrease in yields, thus ruling
out the possibility of a free radical pathway.
As part of our ongoing program to develop efficient meth-
ods for the chemical transformation of CO2 into valuable com-
pounds, we have developed several protocols for the synthesis
of cyclic or acyclic carbamates.[14] Early this year, we reported
a novel three-component coupling reaction of CO2, amines,
and N-tosylhydrazones, in which carbamate anions, generated
in situ from CO2 and amines, were proposed to function as
a nucleophile to attack the in situ-generated carbocation spe-
cies to give the corresponding alkyl carbamates.[14g] We envi-
sioned that, by using diaryliodonium salts as electrophilic ary-
lating agents to trap the in situ-generated carbamate anions,
a straightforward route to O-aryl carbamates could be realized.
Herein we report our preliminary results on phosgene- and
metal-free synthesis of O-aryl carbamates through a three-com-
ponent coupling reaction of CO2, amines and diaryliodonium
salts (Scheme 1c).
For the initial screening and optimization of the reaction
conditions, dimesityliodonium triflate (1a) and diethylamine
(2a) were chosen as the model substrates (Table 1). To our de-
light, when the reaction was carried out under 4 MPa of CO2 in
MeCN at 808C in the presence of 2 equivalents of 1,8-diazabi-
cyclo[5.4.0]-undec-7-ene (DBU), the desired product, mesityl di-
ethylcarbamate (3aa), was obtained in an excellent yield after
12 h (Table 1, entry 1). It should be stressed that 2-iodo-1,3,5-
Having established the optimal reaction conditions, we ex-
amined the scope and limitations of the transformation by
using various amines and diaryliodonium salts. Gratifyingly, var-
ious secondary and primary aliphatic amines investigated un-
derwent the coupling reactions smoothly and furnished the
corresponding products in moderate to excellent yields upon
isolation (Table 2). Notably, morpholine (2 f), methylamine (2g),
and n-propylamine (2h) could even work well under 0.75 MPa
of CO2, delivering the corresponding products in almost equal
yields to those obtained at 4 MPa of CO2. However, when the
reaction was performed using aniline as a coupling partner,
only a trace amount of desired product was observed, which
was associated with the low basicity and nucleophilicity of the
aniline.
Table 1. Optimization of the three-component reaction of diaryliodonium
salt 1a, diethyl amine (2a) and CO2.[a]
Entry
Base
Solvent
MeCN
T [8C]
Yield [%][b]
1
2
3[d]
4
5
6
7
8
DBU
–
DBU
80
80
80
80
80
80
80
80
80
80
60
100
80
80
80
80
90 (86)[c]
37
73
72
74
66
69
80
81
50
70
32
47
78
89
85
MeCN
MeCN
MeCN
MeCN
MeCN
MeCN
THF
DABCO
Et3N
K2CO3
NaOH
DBU
DBU
DBU
DBU
DBU
DBU
DBU
DBU
DBU
Next, we turned our attention to the application of diarylio-
donium salts (Table 3). Pleasingly, diphenyliodonium triflate
(1b1) was also a suitable substrate for the reaction, giving rise
to the corresponding product 3ba in high yield (Table3,
entry 1). However, switching the anion of 1b1 to tetrafluorobo-
rate (1b2), bromide (1b3) and tosylate (1b4) either completely
suppressed the transformation or led to a low product yield
(Table3, entries 2–4), revealing that the nature of the anion of
salts 1 has a profound influence on the formation of the de-
sired products. To our surprise, symmetric salt 1c, containing
a methyl group in the para position of the aryl moiety, gave
product 3ca in a relatively low yield (Table3, entry 5). Inspired
by Olofsson’s elegant arylations using unsymmetric diaryliodo-
nium salts with an anisyl group as a “dummy ligand”,[13f] we
prepared a variety of asymmetric triflates 1d–k and then inves-
tigated their reactivity and selectivity in our new reaction
9
DMF
10
11
12
13[e]
14[f]
15[g]
16[h]
toluene
MeCN
MeCN
MeCN
MeCN
MeCN
MeCN
[a] Reaction conditions (unless otherwise stated): 1a (0.25 mmol), 2a
(2.5 mmol), base (2 equiv), CO2 (4 MPa), solvent (3 mL), 12 h; [b] GC yield
with dodecane as internal standard; number in parentheses is the yield
of isolated product; [c] 2-iodo-1,3,5-trimethylbenzene was also isolated in
91% yield; [d] the reaction was carried out with 1.5 equivalents of DBU;
[e] with 5 equivalents of 2a; [f] under
a CO2 pressure of 0.75 MPa;
[g] with 1.2 equivalents of 1,1-diphenylethene; [h] with 1.2 equivalents of
BHT.
Chem. Eur. J. 2015, 21, 14314 – 14318
14315
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