Aromatic substitution biaryl formation

During their work on the arylation of aromatic compounds by substitution, Fujiwara, et al. observed biaryl formation when aromatic compounds were placed in the presence of olefin-palladium complexes and silver nitrate.80 Developing this reaction as a method for biphenyl synthesis, these authors showed that the more stable the olefin-palladium complex was, the lower the yield. Ethylene dichloropalladium proved to be the best choice, when used with silver nitrate. However, the reaction required stoichiometric amounts of both catalysts (Scheme 10.47). Benzene derivatives substituted by electron-donating or -withdrawing groups reacted as well, but a mixture of regioisomers was produced, except for nitrobenzene, which only gave m,m -dinitrobiphenyl. 

The presence of chelating groups in those complexes is necessary to stabilize the intermediate aryl-palladium complex for isolation but it does not seem necessary to cause palladation. The chelating group does, however, tremendously accelerate the palladation. Aromatic compounds reactive to electrophilic substitution apparently undergo palladation with palladium acetate in acetic acid solution fairly readily at 100 °C or above. Of course, the arylpalladium acetates presumably formed, are not stable under these conditions, and they decompose very rapidly into biaryls and palladium metal 34,35,36) ag do aryl palladium salts prepared by the exchange route 24>. If the direct palladation is carried out in the presence of suitable olefins, arylation can be achieved, so far, however, only in poor yields, arid with concurrent loss of stereospecificity and formation of isomers and other side products 37.38). 

In aromatic systems, oxazolines can have three different functions (Fig. 4). Firstly, they can be used as protecting groups for carboxylic acids. Secondly, they activate even electron-rich aromatic systems for nucleophilic substitution. Fluorine or alkoxy groups in the ortho position can be substituted by strong nucleophiles such as Grignard reagents. Thirdly, when biaryl compounds with axial chirality are synthesized in these reactions, oxazolines can induce the formation of only one atropisomer with excellent selectivity. These three qualities were all used in the synthesis of 20, a precursor of the natural product isochizandrine [10]. 

Polycyclic aromatic compounds are obtained upon irradiation of diaryl-substitnted chromium carbenes under a carbon monoxide atmosphere. The reaction probably proceeds via the formation of a biaryl-aUcoxy ketene followed by cyclization. For example, the pyrrole-substituted carbene (22) gave the tricyclic compound (23) (Scheme 34) Related intramolecular Friedel-Crafts-type reactions of carbenes having tethered electron-rich aromatic rings are feasible, usually in moderate yields (Scheme 35). A Lewis acid catalyst such as zinc dichloride is required for optimum yields. 

ArPb(OzC-CF3)2 Ar+ + Pb(02C CF3)2]. The aryl cations have been trapped with aromatic compounds to give biaryls [with certain substrates, notably poly-methylbenzenes, high yields (up to 88 %) are obtained], but with reactive aromatic substrates aryl cations are not the precursors to the biaryls and in these cases it is proposed that reaction proceeds via preliminary complex formation between the substrate and a species which contains an aryl-lead bond. Oxidative coupling of methyl-substituted benzenes by the reagent Pb(0Ac)4-CFs C02H to give biaryls and diarylmethane is also considered to involve formation of a radical cation in the primary step. A study has also been made of the plumbylation of monohalogeno-benzenes with Pb(OAc)4-CF3 COsH. ... 

This type of retrosynthetic analysis has been utihzed by Yoshida and Imamoto to prepare an impressive range of substituted phenols [14]. For example, as shown in Scheme 17.2, triene 4 afforded phenol 5 in 92% yield on exposure to 2-Ru. In another example, exposure of triene 6, with a different arrangement of the three double bonds, to the same catalyst resulted in the formation of phenol 7 via the presumed ketone intermediate 8. It is also evident from these two examples that a biaryl system is formed during the RCM-aromatization process. This approach has thus added a new synthetic tool to the chemist s repertoire, in addition to traditional methodologies such as the Suzuki-Miyaura reaction. 

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