Palladium alkene acetoxylation

In fact, the role of copper and oxygen in the Wacker Process is certainly more complicated than indicated in equations (151) and (152) and in Scheme 10, and could be similar to that previously discussed for the rhodium/copper-catalyzed ketonization of terminal alkenes. Hosokawa and coworkers have recently studied the Wacker-type asymmetric intramolecular oxidative cyclization of irons-2-(2-butenyl)phenol (132) by 02 in the presence of (+)-(3,2,10-i -pinene)palladium(II) acetate (133) and Cu(OAc)2 (equation 156).413 It has been shown that the chiral pinanyl ligand is retained by palladium throughout the reaction, and therefore it is suggested that the active catalyst consists of copper and palladium linked by an acetate bridge. The role of copper would be to act as an oxygen carrier capable of rapidly reoxidizing palladium hydride into a hydroperoxide species (equation 157).413 Such a process is also likely to occur in the palladium-catalyzed acetoxylation of alkenes (see Section 61.3.4.3). 

Palladium-catalyzed addition of oxygen nucleophiles to alkenes dates back to the Wacker process and acetoxylation of ethylene (Sects. 1 and 2). In contrast, catalytic methods for intermolecular oxidative amination of alkenes (i.e., aza-Wacker reactions) have been identified only recently. Both O2 and BQ have been used as oxidants in these reactions. 

Scheme 14 Possible outcomes for the palladium-catalyzed oxidative acetoxylation of alkenes...

Allylic acetoxylation with palladium(II) salts is well known however, no selective and catalytic conditions have been described for the transformation of an unsubstituted olefin. In the present system use 1s made of the ability of palladium acetate to give allylic functionalization (most probably via a palladium-ir-allyl complex) and to be easily regenerated by a co-oxidant (the combination of benzoquinone-manganese dioxide). In contrast to copper(II) chloride (CuClj) as a reoxidant,8 our catalyst combination is completely regioselective for allcyclic alkenes with aliphatic substrates, evidently, both allylic positions become substituted. As yet, no allylic oxidation reagent is able to distinguish between the two allylic positions in linear olefins this disadvantage is overcome when the allylic acetates are to... 

Palladium catalysts are widely used in liquid phase aerobic oxidations, and numerous examples have been employed for large-scale chemical production (Scheme 8.1). Several industrially important examples are the focus ofdedicated chapters in this book Wacker and Wacker-type oxidation of alkenes into aldehydes, ketones, and acetals (Scheme 8.1a Chapters 9 and 11), 1,4-diacetoxylation of 1,3-butadiene (Scheme 8.1b Chapter 10), and oxidative esterification of methacrolein to methyl methacrylate (Scheme 8.1c Chapter 13). In this introductory chapter, we survey a number of other Pd-catalyzed oxidation reactions that have industrial significance, including acetoxylation of ethylene to vinyl acetate (Scheme 8. Id), oxidative carbonylation of alcohols to dialkyl oxalates and carbonates (Scheme 8.1e), and oxidative coupling of dimethyl phthalate to 3,3, 4,4 -tetramethyl biphenylcarboxy-late (Scheme 8.1f). 

Palladium-catalyzed aUyUc C-H acetoxylation (acyloxylation) of alkenes is one of the synthetically most established C-H functionabzation methods [57-62]. These reactions are conducted under oxidative reaction conditions. In the most commonly used approach, the reaction proceeds via a Pd(II)/Pd(0) catalytic cycle and benzoquinone (BQ) is used for reoxidation of Pd(0) and activation of the nudeophihc (acetate) attack [61, 62],... 

While it is evident that aUyhc acetoxylation and related reactions proceed via two different mechanisms, mainly depending on the structure of the alkenes, it is less clear how to choose reaction conditions in order to favor one route or the other. There is some evidence from early smdies that the use of polar solvents such as DMF will promote aUyl acetate formation. It also appears that excess acetate promotes the formation of products compatible with the rr-allyl route. This is also suggested by recent factorial experiments with variation of carboxylate concentration. Since trimeric palladium acetate will induce rr-allyl formation from a series of monoolefins, it might be assumed that high concentration of palladium acetate could be used for creating conditions that favor a 77-aUyl route. " Another possibility is adding strong acids, which can increase the electrophilicity of the catalyst, but this can drive the reaction toward homoallylic acetates and other isomerized products. "... 

This one-step transformation of an alkene to an allylic acetate compares well with other methods of preparation such as hydride reduction of a, 8-unsaturated carbonyl compounds followed by esterification. The scope and limitations of the reaction have been investigated. The allylic acetoxylation proceeds via a TT-allylpalladium intermediate, and as a result, substituted and linear alkenes generally give several isomeric allylic acetates. With oxygen nucleophiles the reaction is quite general, and reactants and products are stable towards the reaction conditions. This is normally not yet the case with nitrogen nucleophiles, although one intramolecular palladium-catalyzed allylic amination mechanistically related to allylic acetoxylation has been reported. ... 

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