Halides alkenes => active methylene

The consecutive reaction of vinyl halides and alkenes with activated methylene systems [42] in the presence of a palladium catalyst and phase-transfer catalyst results from the addition of the methylene carbanion with the initially formed Heck product (Scheme 6.31) an intramolecular version of the reaction leads to the formation of bicycloalk-l-enes (Scheme 6.31) [42], The analogous combined coupling reaction of iodoarenes and activated methylene compounds with non-conjugated dienes under similar conditions forms the monoalkene (Scheme 6.31) [43]. 

In most cases, treatment of allylic halides containing one ASG with a nucleophile does not result in formation of electrophilic cyclopropanes (MIRC product) instead, other reaction pathways are followed, e.g. addition, substitution, rearrangement and elimination reactions.However, with certain alkenes or nucleophiles or under the appropriate conditions a conjugate addition-nucleophilic substitution pathway is favored, resulting in cyclopropanes substituted with one ASG. Representative examples are compiled in Tables 20 and 21 where organometallic compounds or active methylene compounds are used as the nucleophilic species in combination with allyl bromides containing an ester or a sulfone as ASG. 

On the other hand, the direct arylation of carbanionic species generated from substrates having relatively acidic hydrogens such as active methylene compounds and ketones can occur (mechanism B) [5,6]. Aryl halides are also capable of coupling directly with appropriately functionalized aromatic substrates and five-membered heteroaromatic compounds as formal carbon nucleophiles via cleavage of their unactivated C-H bonds [5,7-9]. The Fujiwra-Moritani reaction, which is the arylation of alkenes with arenes, is also useful for preparing arylalkenes without employing any halides (mechanism D) [10,11]. 

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