Intermolecular direct arylations, arene

Perfluoroarenes were also found to be highly reactive coupling partners in intermolecular direct arylation [68, 69]. A wide range of aryl halides can be employed, including heterocycles such as pyridines, thiophenes, and quinolines. A fluorinated pyridine substrate may also be cross-coupled in high yield and it was also found that the site of arylation preferentially occurs adjacent to fluorine substituents when fewer fluorine atoms are present. Interestingly, the relative rates established from competition studies reveal that the rate of the direct arylation increases with the amount of fluorine substituents on the aromatic ring. In this way, it is inversely proportional to the arene nucleophilicity and therefore cannot arise from an electrophilic aromatic substitution type process (Scheme 7). 

Intermolecular direct arylations of heteroarenes with aryl halides were thus far predominantly accomplished with palladium or rhodium complexes [31, 39,75, 76], Hence rhodium catalysts proved applicable to various electron-rich heteroarenes. In contrast, less expensive and more versatile palladium catalysts allowed for direct arylations of both electron-rich and electron-deficient substrates. Generally, the problem of achieving regioselectivities in direct arylation reactions of heteroarenes is less pronounced than it is for simple arenes, since in many cases the heteroatom can be considered as an endocyclic directing group. 

A homobimetallic rhodium catalyst derived from a P,N-ligand was found to allow for intermolecular direct arylations of unfunctionalized arenes [24]. Interestingly, aryl iodides, bromides-and even chlorides-could be employed as electrophiles, and a variety of valuable functional groups was tolerated by the catalytic system (Scheme 9.12). The C—H bond functionalization of toluene yielded ortho-, meta- and para-substituted regioisomers in a ratio of 71 19 10. Based on this observation and a Hammett correlation, a mechanism proceeding through radical intermediates was suggested. 

Intermolecular Metal-Catalyzed [Direct Arylation of Arenes... 

Palladium(0)-catalyzed cross-coupling of aryl halides and alkenes (i.e., the Heck reaction) is widely used in organic chemistry. Oxidative Heck reactions can be achieved by forming the Pd -aryl intermediate via direct palladation of an arene C - H bond. Intramolecular reactions of this type were described in Sect. 4.1.2, but considerable effort has also been directed toward the development of intermolecular reactions. Early examples by Fu-jiwara and others used organic peroxides and related oxidants to promote catalytic turnover [182-184]. This section will highlight several recent examples that use BQ or dioxygen as the stoichiometric oxidant. 

One class of transformations that illustrate the striking difference in reactivity between heteroarenes and carbocyclic arenes is the heteroaryl Heck reaction, in which an aryl or heteroaryl halide is coupled directly with a heteroaromatic compound to afford a biaryl product (formally a C—H bond functionalization process). Intermolecular Heck reactions involving the functionalization of aromatic carbocycles with aryVheteroaryl halides are rare [70], whereas heterocycles including thiophenes, furans, thiazoles, oxazoles, imidazoles. 

In 2006 Fagnou described the direct intermolecular arylation of perfluoro benzene derivatives via the proposed proton-transfer pathway (Scheme 6). The reaction shows complete inversion of reactivity relative to the electrophilic C-H activation pathway and is thought to proceed via a concerted arene-metallation and C-H bond cleaving process, which depends on the acidity of the C-H bond being cleaved. 

Based on studies directed towards chelation-assisted oxidative homocouplings of 2-arylpyridines, a protocol was developed for intermolecular coupling reactions [132]. Thus, benzo h quinoline (186) was efficiently arylated with a variety of arenes using silver salts and benzoquinone as additives (Scheme 9.53). 

Although the mechanism of the base-induced formation of calixarenes has been studied in some detail, the reaction pathways remain uncertain. The most intuitively reasonable proposal is that the immediate precursor of any particular calixarene, regardless of size, is the linear oligomer carrying the requisite number of aryl residues. Another proposal, however, postulates that calix[8]arenes, for example, arise from intermolecularly hydrogen-bonded dimers (hemicalixarenes) formed from a pair of crescent-shaped, intramolecularly hydrogen-bonded linear tetramers. Calix[4]arenes, formed under considerably more strenuous conditions, have been postulated to be the result not of direct cyclization of the linear tetramer but of reversion of the calix[8]arene. The cyclic octamer is viewed as the product of kinetic control, and the cyclic tetramer is viewed as the product of thermodynamic control. The particular efficacy of KOH and RbOH for the formation of calix[6]arenes suggests that the hexamer is the product of template control. 

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