Palladium Alkene Activation

Recent advances include alkyl iodides as substrates that can be activated by metal complexation. Also Jt-allyl "anions", when co-ordinated to palladium, are activated toward attack by nucleophiles. This is very similar to the activation of co-ordinated alkenes and it shows the very high electrophilicity of palladium. The valence state of palladium, and/or the charge on palladium, and therefore also the ligands attached to it are very important ... 

The (flat) palladium surface activates a reacting molecule (the aryl halide) for the attack of the reaction partner (alkene) as illustrated in Fig. 10.14. 

Nitrogen nucleophiles also attack alkenes activated by Pd(ll), and benzoquinone can again act as a reoxidant, allowing the use of catalytic quantities of palladium. The mechanism follows the same pattern as for oxygen nucleophiles, and a final isomerization produces the most stable regioisomer of product. In this example the product is an aromatic indole, so the double bond migrates into the five-membered ring. 

The O -oxidation of alkenes to ketones can also be effected by cationic palladium nitro complexes like [(CH2CN)2Pd(N02)ICl, containing both the 0-donor NO group and the alkene activating Lewis acid center... 

In feet, Norman et ol disclosed the first example of an intramolecular Fujiwara-Moritani reaction back in 1970 [124] it was. however, understood as a Friedel-Crafts-type process involving alkene activation by palladium(II). Aside from this seminal report, a few oxidative cydizations of 1.4-quinones using stoichiometric amounts of... 

The isolated product is trans configured, which proves C—H bond activation and, in turn, precludes the electrophilic alkene activation pathway. It should be noted, however, that when using platinum(ll) instead of palladium(ll) in related cycliza-tions, the ring closure indeed proceeds through the latter pathway [131] ... 

Pd-catalyzed reactions involving attack on palladium-alkene, palladium-alkyne, and related -TT-complexes by carbon nucleophiles are discussed in Sect. V.2.3. Complexation of alkenes and alkynes to palladium(II) compounds activates alkenes and alkynes to nucleophilic attack. In general, when Pd(II) salts are employed, stoichiometric quantities of Pd... 

Palladium-catalyzed transformations of alkenes have been studied extensively and developed widely. In general, two distinct types of transformations wiU take place when bond palladium species meet the alkenes. One is the insertion of alkene into the X-Pd bond the other is the nucleophilic attack of the alkenes activated by Pd(II) species. These transformations are known as carbopalladation, aminopaUadation, oxopalladation, and so on, depending on the atom that is involved. How to trap the resnlting palladium species from carbopalladation or other palladium-catalyzed transformations with other reagents will be the key to making a cascade. 

The best procedures for 3-vinylation or 3-arylation of the indole ring involve palladium intermediates. Vinylations can be done by Heck reactions starting with 3-halo or 3-sulfonyloxyindoles. Under the standard conditions the active catalyst is a Pd(0) species which reacts with the indole by oxidative addition. A major con.sideration is the stability of the 3-halo or 3-sulfonyloxyindoles and usually an EW substituent is required on nitrogen. The range of alkenes which have been used successfully is quite broad and includes examples with both ER and EW substituents. Examples are given in Table 11.3. An alkene which has received special attention is methyl a-acetamidoacrylate which is useful for introduction of the tryptophan side-chain. This reaction will be discussed further in Chapter 13. 

Complete reduction to the alkane occurs when palladium on carbon (Pd/C) is used as catalyst, but hydrogenation can be stopped at the alkene if the less active Lindlar catalyst is used. The Lindlar catalyst is a finely divided palladium metal that has been precipitated onto a calcium carbonate support and then deactivated by treatment with lead acetate and quinoline, an aromatic amine. The hydrogenation occurs with syn stereochemistry (Section 7.5), giving a cis alkene product. 

Compound A, C H O, was found to be an optically active alcohol. Despite its apparent unsaturation, no hydrogen was absorbed on catalytic reduction over a palladium catalyst. On treatment of A with dilute sulfuric acid, dehydration occurred and an optically inactive alkene B, Q iH14, was produced as the major product. Alkene B, on ozonolysis, gave two products. One product was identified as propanal, CH3CH2CHO. Compound C, the other product, was shown to be a ketone, CgHgO. How many degrees of unsaturation does A have Write the reactions, and identify A, B, and C. 

In an extension of this work, the Shibasaki group developed the novel transformation 48—>51 shown in Scheme 10.25c To rationalize this interesting structural change, it was proposed that oxidative addition of the vinyl triflate moiety in 48 to an asymmetric palladium ) catalyst generated under the indicated conditions affords the 16-electron Pd+ complex 49. Since the weakly bound triflate ligand can easily dissociate from the metal center, a silver salt is not needed. Insertion of the coordinated alkene into the vinyl C-Pd bond then affords a transitory 7t-allylpalladium complex 50 which is captured in a regio- and stereocontrolled fashion by acetate ion to give the optically active bicyclic diene 51 in 80% ee (89% yield). This catalytic asymmetric synthesis by a Heck cyclization/ anion capture process is the first of its kind. 

Another useful class of palladium-catalyzed cycloisomerizations is based on the general mechanistic pathway shown in Scheme 13. In this chemistry, a hydridopalladium acetate complex is regarded as the catalytically active species.27b-29 According to this pathway, coordination of a generic enyne such as 59 to the palladium metal center facilitates a hydropalladation reaction to give intermediate 60. With a pendant alkene, 60 can then participate in a ring-form-... 

Nickel(II) complexes of ligands 38 (R=H,Me R =H,Me,Et,Tr,CH30 R =H, CH3O R =H, F, CH3O) are highly active catalysts for ethylene polymerization [86,159], whereas palladium(II) complexes possess catalytic properties in the copolymerization of CO and alkenes [160] (Scheme 36). 

The most widely used method for adding the elements of hydrogen to carbon-carbon double bonds is catalytic hydrogenation. Except for very sterically hindered alkenes, this reaction usually proceeds rapidly and cleanly. The most common catalysts are various forms of transition metals, particularly platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, and nickel. Both the metals as finely dispersed solids or adsorbed on inert supports such as carbon or alumina (heterogeneous catalysts) and certain soluble complexes of these metals (homogeneous catalysts) exhibit catalytic activity. Depending upon conditions and catalyst, other functional groups are also subject to reduction under these conditions. 

The hydration of propylene with sulfuric acid catalyst in high-temperature water was investigated using a flow reaction system.31 The major product is isopropanol. A biopolymer-metal complex, wool-supported palladium-iron complex (wool-Pd-Fe), has been found to be a highly active catalyst for the hydration of some alkenes to the corresponding alcohols. The yield is greatly affected by the Pd/Fe molar ratio in the wool-Pd-Fe complex catalyst and the catalyst can be reused several times without remarkable change in the catalytic activity.32... 

---