Homocoupled and reduction

Scheme8.11. Palladium-catalyzed homocoupling and reduction of organyl halides, carbonates, and triflates [57, 94, 104, 108,109].

Regioselective syntheses of 1,3,5-unsymmetrically substituted benzenes (309) are catalyzed by Pd(dba)2/PPh3 mixed alkyne/diyne reactants give mixtures containing homocoupled and mixed products (24 21 from HC CPh + HC=CC= CC Hn). The probable mechanism involves oxidative addition to the Pd(0) center, insertion of the second diyne into the Pd—H bond, reductive coupling and subsequent jr-complexation of this product to Pd(0), followed by Diels-Alder cycloaddition of the third diyne and elimination of product. 

The pioneering work of Conant showed that the one-electron reduction of pyridinium ion by low-valent vanadium produces the corresponding carbon radical, which dimerizes to give a homocoupling product. Saveant studied the electrochemical reduction of stable iminium salts, and observed two reduction waves in the polarograms (Scheme 5.27). The first wave corresponds to the one-electron reduction process for which dimerization occurs. This process presumably involves formation of the carbon centered radical. The second wave is concerned with the formation of the amine by two-electron reduction. Wayner performed extensive work on oxidation and reduction potentials of carbon radicals.A modulated... 

Homocoupling likely occurs by a related catalytic cycle, but less information is known about this process. A nickel(O) or palladium(O) complex undergoes oxidative addition of an aryl halide. One could imagine that a second aryl halide adds to generate an intermediate in the M(IV) oxidation state, but this step is unlikely to occur with either palladium or nickel catalysts. One can also envision a mechanism involving disproportionation of the arylmetal-halide intermediate to form a biaryl complex and a dihalide complex. Reductive elimination would form the biaryl, and reduction of the dihalide with Zn or other terminal reductant would regenerate the catalyst. 

Silver(I) carbonate is responsible for generating an aryl silver species, which can subsequently undergo transmetalation with Pd. To prevent protodecarboxylation and decarboxylative homocoupling, tricyclohexylphosphine was required to accelerate transmetalation and reductive elimination. Electron-rich, electron-deficient, and heterocyclic benzoic acids were compatible coupling partners and a wide range of functional groups were tolerated for both thiophene and carboxylic acid moieties. Additional heterocycles such as benzothiophenes and 2-methylfuran could also be arylated. 

Metal-induced reductive dimerization of carbonyl compounds is a useful synthetic method for the formation of vicinally functionalized carbon-carbon bonds. For stoichiometric reductive dimerizations, low-valent metals such as aluminum amalgam, titanium, vanadium, zinc, and samarium have been employed. Alternatively, ternary systems consisting of catalytic amounts of a metal salt or metal complex, a chlorosilane, and a stoichiometric co-reductant provide a catalytic method for the formation of pinacols based on reversible redox couples.2 The homocoupling of aldehydes is effected by vanadium or titanium catalysts in the presence of Me3SiCl and Zn or A1 to give the 1,2-diol derivatives high selectivity for the /-isomer is observed in the case of secondary aliphatic or aromatic aldehydes. 

An approach to the preparation of asymmetrically 1,2-disubstituted 1,2-diamines has been reported the zinc-copper-promoted reductive coupling of two different N-(4-substituted)phenyl aromatic imines, one bearing a 4-methoxy and the other a 4-chloro substituent, in the presence of either boron trifluoride or methyltrichlorosilane, gave a mixture of the three possible 1,2-diamines, where the mixed one predominated [31 ]. Low degrees of asymmetric induction were observed using 1-phenylethylamine, phenylglycinol and its 0-methyl ether, and several a-amino acid esters as the chiral auxiharies meanwhile the homocoupling process was not avoided (M.Shimizu, personal communication). 

The homocoupling of aryl halides and triflates can be made catalytic in nickel by using zinc as a reductant for in situ regeneration of the active Ni(0) species. 

The reaction is considered to proceed via a silyl anion mechanism, although the possibility of a radical-based mechanism has also been discussed.115,125 In order to clarify the mechanism, coupling experiments on a 1 1 mixture of chlorotrimethylsilane, 27 (reduction potential <—3.0 V),126 and chlorotriphenylsilane, 28 (reduction potential vs. standard calomel electrode (SCE) < —3.0 V),120 were performed, in which the mixed coupling product 1,1,1-trimethyl-2,2,2-triphenyldisilane, 29, and the homocoupling product hexaphenyldisilane, 30, only, were found,125 as indicated in Scheme 15. 

In the presence of Pd(PPh3)4, reductive homocoupling of 3-silylpropargyl carbonate 50 proceeded to give a mixture of allenenyne 51 and diyne 52 [65], The highest allene selectivity (51 52 = 95 5) was achieved for the reaction of 50 with R = SiiPr3 and R = Et (Scheme 3.29). 

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