Palladium benzylic acetoxylation

A particularly significant and useful contribution of transition metals in fine organic synthesis as well at the industrial level is based on their use as catalysts. This aspect is of course particularly important with expensive transition metals (Rh, Os, Pd, etc.). Indeed, there are numerous examples of selective processes which have never been developed up to the industrial stage because of catalyst costs, especially when some (even minor) loss of the catalyst could not be avoided. This was, for example, the case for palladium-catalyzed benzylic acetoxylation reactions, and several rhodium-catalyzed reactions, such as the direct ethylene glycol production from syngas (prohibitive pressures being an additional major drawback in this latter case). 

Acetoxylation of toluene using a Pd(OAc)2-Sn(OAc)2-charcoal catalyst selectively produces benzyl acetate with high turnover numbers ( 100).373,434 The active catalyst presumably contains Pd—Sn bonds. Tin ligands are known to increase the 7r-acceptor ability of palladium, and may favor the coordination of the toluene in the form of a benzylic 7r-allyl complex (141) which is nucleophilically attacked by the acetate anion.435... 

In his pioneering contributions Moiseev has shown that giant cationic palladium clusters , e.g. Pd56iL6o(OAc)i8o (L = phenanthroline, bipyridine), characterized by use of high-resolution TEM, SAXS, EXAFS, IR and magnetic susceptibility data, catalyze, under mild conditions (293 363 K, 1 bar), the oxidative acetoxylation of ethylene into vinyl acetate, propylene into allyl acetate, and toluene into benzyl acetate. The oxidation of primary aliphatic alcohols to esters, and the conversion of aldehydes into acetals were also studied. ... 

The or//io-palladation of 3,4-dioxygenated benzylic tertiary amines by lithium tetrachloropalladate can be directed exclusively to either C-2 or C-6. Substitution at C-6 prevails when AcO, methylenedioxy, PhCH20, methoxymethyl ether, or HO substituents are attached to C-3, whereas palladation occurs exclusively at C-2 when C-3 bears methylthiomethyl ether or phenylthiomethyl ether substituents. The resulting organopalladium compounds are crystalline solids, stable to air and moisture, and can readily be carbonylated, alkylated, arylated, Kinetic studies of the acetoxylation of arenes by potassium peroxydisulphate and acetic acid in the presence of (2,2 -bipyridyl)palladium(ii) acetate catalyst have led to a revision of the mechanism. The reaction is now thought to proceed via... 

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