Coupling reactions Fujiwara-Moritani type

Ruthenium has a rich chemistry of hydroarylation reactions [22], but it has also been used successfully by Milstein and coworkers [23] as a catalyst for oxidative couplings of the Fujiwara-Moritani type (Figure 4.12). Under an atmosphere of carbon monoxide (6 bar), various ruthenium precursors effectively promoted the reaction of acrylates (e.g., 4g) with benzene (2a) to give a 1 1 ratio of the (E)-cinnamate 5i and methyl propionate 12, rather than the expected hydroarylation product methyl 3-phenylpropionate. Added oxygen (2 bar) could partly take over the role of the reoxidant from the alkene, resulting in an increase in the incorporahon of the alkene into the cinnamate product, giving a ratio of up to 3 1 of the arylated to the reduced acrylate. 

The Fujiwara-Moritani reaction is a Pd-catalyzed oxidative coupling of an unfunctionalized arene with an alkene, in which a C-H bond of the arene is directly converted to a new C-C bond. Developing an asymmetric version of this type of reaction remains a formidable challenge in modern synthetic... 

In 1999, Mikami s group reported the first example of an intermolecular asymmetric Fujiwara-Moritani reaction of benzene with cyclic alkenes using a Pd catalyst co-ordinating to a chiral sulfonylamide-oxazoline ligand (Scheme 7.24). With PhCOs Bu as the oxidant, the coupling reaction occurred with moderate enantioselectivity (up to 49% ee), although the chemical yield was low. The reaction is considered to involve the formation of a phenyl-Pd species via electrophilic C-H substitution by Pd(ii), and Heck-type cyclization followed by re-oxidation of the resultant Pd(0) species. 

Prior to the concept of cross-dehydrogenative-coupling (CDC), Moritani and Fujiwara developed the oxidative formation of Heck-type reaction products directly from arenes and alkenes, instead of aryl halides and... 

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