Arene derivatives transition metal catalysts

Phenanthridinone derivatives have been reported to be found in a number of natural alkaloids and exhibit a wide range of biological activities. In the case of starting from bi-functionalized arenes with transition metal catalysts, the intramolecular cyclization of 2-bromo-iV-arylbenzamides via C-H activation is the most direct pathway, which has been applied in the synthesis of anti-hepatitis C virus agents and materials. Remarkably, Yao, Xu and their co-workers developed a one-pot procedure for the synthesis of a pyrrolophenanthridone skeleton via an intramolecular Heck reaction and oxidation of N-(2-bromobenzyl) substituted indoles. Moderate to good yields of the desired products were isolated in one step (Scheme 3.67). From the point view of academic interest, the... 

Use of transition metal catalysts opens up previously unavailable mechanistic pathways. With hydrogen peroxide and catalytic amounts of methyl trioxorhe-nium (MTO), 2-methylnaphthalene can be converted to 2-methylnaphtha-l,4-qui-none (vitamin K3 or menadione) in 58 % yield and 86 % selectivity at 81 % conversion (Eq. 10) [43, 44]. Metalloporphyrin-catalyzed oxidation of 2-methylnaphtha-lene with KHSOs can also be used to prepare vitamin K3 [45]. The MTO-catalyzed process can also be applied to the synthesis of quinones from phenols [46, 47]. In particular, several benzoquinones of cardanol derivatives were prepared in this manner [48], The oxidation is thought to proceed through the formation of arene oxide intermediates [47]. 

The intramolecular hydroarylation of alkynes is a useful method for the synthesis of fused arenes. For example, biphenyl derivatives, bearing an alkyne unit at the ortho position, were converted into substituted phenanthrene derivatives in the presence of various jc-electrophihc transition metal catalysts such as platinum, palladium, gold, gaUium, indium, iron, and so on (Scheme 21.48) [54]. 

That the kinetically derived relative adsorption constants, Kab, decrease with the numbers of alkyl substituents is surprising because alkyl substituents increase the basicity of the benzene ring and stabilize Tl -arene transition metal complexes. The directly measured adsorption coefficients of benzene, toluene, p-xylene and mesitylene on a cobalt catalyst at 89 °C do increase with the number of methyl groups and the rates of hydrogenation decrease in that order. A consensus regarding the significance of the kinetically determined adsorption constants has not been reached. ... 

The possibilities for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds involving arenes have been dramatically increased in recent years by the use of transition metal catalysis. Copper-mediated reactions to couple aryl halides in Ulknann-type reactions [12, 13] have been known for many years, and copper still remains an important catalyst [14, 15]. However, the use of metals such as palladium [16,17] to effect substitution has led to such an explosion of research that in 2011 transition metal-catalyzed processes comprised more than half of the reactions classified as aromatic substitutions in Organic Reaction Mechanisms [18]. The reactions often involve a sequence outlined in Scheme 6.6 where Ln represents ligand(s) for the palladium. Oxidative addition of the aryl halide to the paiiadium catalyst is followed by transmetalation with an aryl or alkyl derivative and by reductive elimination to give the coupled product and legeuCTate the catalyst. Part 6 of this book elaborates these and related processes. 

Contrary to simple aliphatic-substituted alkenes, the metal-catalyzed hydro-amination of vinyl arenes proceeds usually with high anti-Markovnikov selectivity to give p-phenethylamine derivatives (Fig. 12). This reversal of regioselectivity may be explained with the alkene insertion step proceeding through the sterically more encumbered transition state which is favored due to attractive metal-arene interactions and resonance stabilization of the benzyl carbanion. The same selectivity pattern is observed for alkali [40] and alkaline earth [154, 155] metal catalysts and is also explained by metal-aryl interactions as shown by DFT-calculations [40]. 

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