Carbon-heteroatom coupling transition metal bond formation

Examples of the transition metal catalyzed formation of carbon-heteroatom bonds other than carbon-nitrogen are less abundant. In a recent survey of the copper catalyzed carbon-oxygen bond formation between alcohols and organotrifluroborates the coupling of 3-thienyltrifluoroborate and 2-furfuryl alcohol gave the expected thienyl-furfuryl-ether in good yield (6.83.),113... 

Very few transition-metal catalyzed electroreductive carbon-heteroatom bond formations have been described. The electrochemical silylation of allylic acetates was carried out in the presence of Pd-PPha [131]. The electrosynthesis of arylthioethers from thiophenol and aryl halides [132] and the coupling of bromobenzene with dichlorophenylphosphine [133] were performed with Ni-bpy as catalyst. 

Transition metal catalyzed insertion reactions offer a convenient route for the preparation of five membered heterocyclic rings. Besides intramolecular Heck-couplings and CO insertion, examples of the intramolecular insertion of an acetylene derivative constitute the majority of this chapter. Although some of these processes involve the formation of a carbon-heteroatom bond, they are discussed here. 

The transition metal catalyzed synthesis of seven membered and larger heterocycles attracted considerably less attention than the preparation of their five and six membered analogues. Typical examples in this chapter include the formation of heterocycles in insertion reactions, or through carbon-heteroatom bond formation. Although the formation of some macrocyclic natural products was also achieved in cross-coupling reactions they will not be discussed in detail. 

During the past few decades, transition metal-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions have become a powerful tool for the construction of C—C and C-heteroatom bonds [1]. This strategy allows the conceptually simple and yet powerful and reliable approach for synthesizing structurally complex pharmaceuticals and biologically active molecules. The two most vastly used transition metal catalysts in carbon-heteroatom bond formation are palladium (mainly depends on its ancillary ligands) and copper (depends on the optimization of the catalytic system as a whole copper source, solvent, base, concentrations, etc.). Besides, considerable developments have also been made with other transition metal catalysts such as nickel, iron, etc. 

Transition metal-catalyzed cross-coupling methodologies have become privileged approaches and are recognized as powerful, practical, and versatile methods for carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bond formation (see Chapters 19 and 20) [168-170]. They play an important role in both modem drag... 

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