Palladium complexes pseudohalides

The Heck reaction, a palladium-catalyzed vinylic substitution, is conducted with olefins and organohalides or pseudohalides are frequently used as reactants [15, 16], One of the strengths of the method is that it enables the direct monofunctionalization of a vinylic carbon, which is difficult to achieve by other means. Numerous elegant transformations based on Heck chemistry have been developed in natural and non-natural product synthesis. Intermolecular reactions with cyclic and acyclic al-kenes, and intramolecular cyclization procedures, have led to the assembly of a variety of complex and sterically congested molecules. 

The palladium-catalyzed coupling of boronic acids (as well as other boron derivatives) with aryl and vinyl halides and pseudohalides is known as the Suzuki or Suzuki-Miyaura reaction. Because boron is nontoxic, this reaction has been used in pharmaceutical syntheses. In addition, hydroboration or borate substitution allows for the synthesis of virtually any desired coupling partner. For these reasons, as well as the high yields and functional group compatibility, the Suzuki reaction is the first reaction to consider for carrying out a cross coupling. Representative substrates and catalysts are shown in Scheme 17. The various bases are used to generate four-coordinate boron ate complexes that are more reactive in transmetalation. 

The palladium-catalyzed reaction of olefins with aryl or vinyl halides or pseudohalides in the presence of base (the Heck reaction) follows a different course from the other crosscoupling reactions after the oxidative addition step. As shown in Scheme 19.5, the olefin coordinates to the palladium after oxidative addition of the aryl or vinyl halide. Tliis coordination of olefin may occur by associative displacement of a monodentate ligand from the palladium, or it may occur by replacement of halide by the olefin to generate a cationic olefin complex. In some cases, these reactions are conducted with aryl or vinyl triflates. In this case, the olefin readily displaces the triflate to generate a cationic palladium-olefin... 

We reasoned that such a decarboxylation step could also be employed in a redox-neutral cross-coupling reaction with carbon electrophiles. On this basis, we drew up a catalytic cycle that starts with an oxidative addition of aryl halides or pseudohalides to a coordinatively unsaturated palladium(O) species f (Scheme 5). The more weakly coordinating the leaving group X, the easier should be its subsequent replacement by a carboxylate. At least for X = OTf, the palladium(ll) carboxylate h should form quantitatively, whereas for X = halide, it should be possible to enforce this step by employing silver or thallium salts as species g. The ensuing thermal decarboxylation of the palladium(ll) intermediate i represents the most critical step. Myers results indicated that certain palladium(ll) carboxylates liberate carbon dioxide on heating. However, it remained unclear whether arylpalladium (II) carboxylate complexes such as i would display a similar reactivity. If this were to be the case, they would form Ar-Pd-Ar intermediates k, which in turn are... 

In the neutral pathway, one of the phosphines dissociates from the four-coordinated square planar palladium(II) complex, generating a neutral palla-dium(II) halide species, which leads to the linear ) -arylated product. On the other hand, during the cationic pathway a halide or pseudohalide is replaced with the incoming olefin forming a cationic palladium(II) intermediate, which in turn leads primarily to the branched a-arylated product [75]. 

In the last years a powerful set of protocols involving C(sp )-N bond fonnation have emerged as reliable and convenient alternatives for the assembly of enamine and enamides. The latter methods consist of mostly palladium-catalyzed oxidative amidations of alkenes [38] and both palladium-[39] and copper-catalyzed crosscouplings [40] between generally vinyl halides or pseudohalides and amines or amides. In this review, recent advances in both types of processes will be disclosed illustrating, likewise, their synthetic value by describing total syntheses of natural products of high structural complexity. 

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