Carbon-palladium sigma-bond

Tn most organic syntheses involving palladium, palladium-carbon sigma bonds are involved at some stage in the reaction pathway (J). Two important types of reactions which take place in organo-palladium syntheses are oxidative additions to palladium(O) and addition of palladium (II) complexes across olefins as well as the respective reverse (elimination) reactions. In both these reactions, carbon-palladium sigma bonds are made and broken ... 

Xlld does not involve the chiral center, so if the reaction takes place by this pathway, the migration of the alkyl group from sulfur to palladium (with the concomitant or subsequent loss of sulfur dioxide) must take place with inversion of configuration at carbon. Inversion of configuration at carbon has been observed in the reverse-type reaction, the sulfur dioxide insertion into a carbon-iron sigma bond (49). Nucleophilic displacement at carbon in compounds of type Xld is unusually difficult, so the reaction via the sulfite intermediate Xlld would appear to be more likely. Conversion of the tosylate of l-phenyl-2,2,2-trifluoroethanol to the corresponding chloride, a reaction which takes place in the presence of tetra- (n-butyl) ajnmonium chloride with inversion of configuration at carbon, requires 100°C for 24 hrs in dimethylsulfoxide. 

Metal-Halogen Counpounds. One of the few examples of an olefin insertion into a metal-halogen compound has been reported by Tsuji. The reaction, which also supports the idea that sigma-bonded metal-carbon compounds are intermediates in the palladium chloride-olefin oxidation reaction, was the addition of carbon monoxide to the ethylene palladium chloride 7r-complex in nonaqueous solvents to produce a moderate yield of 3-chloropropionyl chloride (96). 

Synthesis and Reactions of Palladium-Carbon Sigma-Bonded Complexes... 

Palladium (II)-Nucleophile Addition across Olefins. Adding palladium complexes to olefins, either in the presence of an external nucleophile or a ligand which is attached to palladium, produces a palladium-carbon sigma-bonded complex which is not usually isolated in the case of monoolefins. Instead it decomposes and in doing so oxidizes the olefin to an organic carbonyl compound or a vinyl compound, exchanges a substituent group on the olefin, isomerizes the double bond, arylates (alkylates) the olefin, or carboxylates the olefin (2, 3). 

In the case of certain diolefins, the palladium-carbon sigma-bonded complexes can be isolated and the stereochemistry of the addition with a variety of nucleophiles is trans (4, 5, 6). The stereochemistry of the addition-elimination reactions in the case of the monoolefins, because of the instability of the intermediate sigma-bonded complex, is not clear. It has been argued (7, 8, 9) that the chelating diolefins are atypical, and the stereochemical results cannot be extended to monoolefins since approach of an external nucleophile from the cis side presents steric problems. The trans stereochemistry has also been attributed either to the inability of the chelating diolefins to rotate 90° from the position perpendicular to the square plane of the metal complex to a position which would favor cis addition by metal and a ligand attached to it (10), or to the fact that methanol (nucleophile) does not coordinate to the metal prior to addition (11). In the Wacker Process, the kinetics of oxidation of olefins suggest, but do not require, the cis hydroxypalladation of olefins (12,13,14). The acetoxypalladation of a simple monoolefin, cyclohexene, proceeds by trans addition (15, 16). 

One approach to the problem of determining the stereochemistry of the unstable palladium-carbon sigma-bonded intermediate is its trapping by replacement of the palladium with some other group by a reaction that takes place at least competitively with elimination. The carbonylation of such intermediates proceeds more rapidly than the elimination, and it proceeds with 100% retention of configuration at the carbon bearing the palladium (17, 18). 

The reaction between an organic electrophile 1 and an organostannane 2 mediated by a transition metal catalyst (originally palladium) to form a new sigma carbon carbon bond is referred to as the Stille cross-coupling reaction (equation 1). 

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