Early Palladium-Catalyzed Amination

The scope of this reaction appeared to be limited to dialkylamides and electron-neutral aryl halides. For example, nitro-, acyl-, methoxy-, and dimethylamino-substituted aryl halides gave poor yields upon palladium-catalyzed reaction with tributyltin diethylamide. Further, aryl bromides were the only aryl halides to give any reaction product. Vinyl bromides gave modest yields of enamines in some cases. Only unhindered dialkyl tin amides gave substantial amounts of amination product. The mechanism did not appear to involve radicals or benzyne intermediates. 

Boger reported studies on palladium-mediated cyclization to form the CDE ring system of lavendamycin, as shown in Eq. (2) [88-90]. These reactions were conducted with stoichiometric amounts of [Pd(PPh3)4] (2). When used in a 1 mol % quantity, 2 failed to catalyze these reactions, presumably because of the absence of a base. Until almost ten years later, no palladium-catalyzed amination chemistry was reported, and there were few citations of the early amination chemistry. 

In 1994, Paul, Patt, and Hartwig showed that the Pd(0) catalyst in Kosugi s process was Pd[P(o-C6H4Me)312 (3), which underwent oxidative addition of aryl halides to give dimeric aryl halide complexes (4) [91]. These aryl halide complexes reacted directly with tin amides to form arylamine products (Eq. (3)). Thus, this chemistry could formally be viewed as being roughly parallel to Stille coupling. 

In the same year, Guram and Buchwald showed that the use of in situ derived tin amides extended this chemistry beyond just electron-neutral aryl halides [92]. However, reactions that gave yields of 80 % or more were still limited to tin amides derived from secondary amines. 

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DPEPhos was employed relatively early in the development of palladium-catalyzed aminations [59] and constitutes a viable ligand for the use of PdCh [48]. 

With the exception of intramolecular amination reactions, all of the early aryl halide aminations were catalyzed by palladium complexes containing the sterically hindered P(o-tol)3. In papers published back-to-back in 1996, amination chemistry catalyzed by palladium complexes of DPPF and BINAP was reported.36,37 These catalysts allowed for the coupling of aryl bromides and iodides with primary alkyl amines, cyclic secondary amines, and anilines. 

Early findings by Heck and co-workers [56] have shown that the palladium-catalyzed coupling of aromatic halides, non-conjugated 1,3 dienes and secondary amines gives the corresponding arylallylated amines. A representative example is given in Scheme 8.20. 

Based on early mechanistic experiments, we propose that aminoester 139 and palladium(II)-n-allyl conplex 140 establish an unfavorable equilibrium with palladium(0) and ammonium salt 141 (Scheme 1 S.3ST As soon as this unstable ammonium intermediate is formed, it undergoes a rapid deprotonation to generate ammonium ylide 142, which is transformed into the observed [2,3]-rearrangement product 143 through an exo transition state. An unfavorable equilibrium for the palladium-catalyzed ammonium salt formation, in conjunction with the facile conversion of ammonium salts into the [2,3]-rearrangement products, could explain the difficulty in observing any ammonium intermediates. This mechanistic proposal also accounts for why catalytic intermolecular allylic amination with tertiary amines has never been reported before. 

The activation of the C-H bond on aromatic rings was explored as expected. As early as 1982, palladium-catalyzed intramolecular cyclization of diatyl ethers and diaryl amines were mentioned. In the presence of a palladium catalyst, low yields of the desired indole and benzofuran derivatives could be observed (Scheme 2.78). 

Amine activatitMi pathway has been well studied in catalysis by lanthanides, early transition metals, and alkali metals. In metal amide chemistry of late transition metals, there are mainly two pathways to synthesize metal amide complexes applicable under hydroamination conditions [54], One is oxidative addition of amines to produce a metal amide species bearing hydride (Scheme 8a). The other gives a metal amide species by deprotonation of an amine metal intermediate derived from the coordination of amines to metal center, and it often occurs as ammonium salt elimination by the second amine molecule (Scheme 8b). Although the latter type of amido metal species is rather limited in hydroamination by late transition metals, it is often proposed in the mechanism of palladium-catalyzed oxidative amination reaction, which terminates the catalytic cycle by p-hydride elimination [26]. Hydroamination through aminometallation with metal amide species demands at least two coordination sites on metal, one for amine coordination and another for C-C multiple bond coordination. Accordingly, there is a marked difference between the hydroamination via C-C multiple bond activation, which demands one coordination site on metal, and via amine activation. 

An early example of this strategy is the palladium black catalyzed conversion of (Z)-2-buten-l,4-diol with primary amines (cyclohexyl amine, 2-aminoethanol, -hexyl amine, aniline) at 120 °C to give A-substituted pyrroles in 46-93% yield [119]. Trost extended this animation to the synthesis of a series of AT-benzyl amines 169 from the readily available a-acetoxy-a-vinylketones 168 [120]. This methodology allowed for the facile preparation of pyrrolo-fused steroids. 

After these initial results by Tsuji, this elementary step was incorporated into a catalytic process by Hata and co-workers at Toray Industries and by Atkins and co-workers at Union Carbide. These groups reported reactions of allylic phenyl ethers, allylic alcohols, and allylic acetates with carboxylates, alcohols, primary and secondary amines, and methyl acetoacetate catalyzed by Pd(0) complexes and precursors to Pd(0) complexes (Equation 20.3). - After these initial reports, early developments focused on reactions of "soft" carbanions derived from 3-dicarbonyl compounds, cyanoesters, and related compounds containing two electron-withdrawing groups attached to the nucleophilic carbon. Although these reactions occur with allylic halides in the absence of a catalyst, these reactions are greatly accelerated by palladium catalysts. Thus, the palladium catalyst allows these reactions to occur under mild conditions with allylic acfetates, which are more accessible than allylic halides, and with selectivities that are altered by the metal catalyst. 

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