The Transmetalation Step

Although analogous to the direct coupling reaction, the catalytic cycle for the carbonylative coupling reaction is distinguished by an insertion of carbon monoxide into the C-Pd bond of complex A (see A—>B, Scheme 31). The transmetalation step-then gives trans complex C which isomerizes to the cis complex D. The ketone product E is revealed after reductive elimination. 

These are called cross-coupling reactions and usually involve three basic steps oxidative addition, transmetallation, and reductive elimination. In the transmetallation step an organic group is transferred from the organometallic reagent to palladium. 

An enantioselective variant of the diene cydization reaction has been developed by application of chiral zirconocene derivatives, such as Brintzinger s catalyst (12) [10]. Mori and co-workers demonstrated that substituted dial-lylbenzylamine 25 could be cyclized to pyrrolidines 26 and 27 in a 2 1 ratio using chiral complex 12 in up to 79% yield with up to 95% ee (Eq. 4) [ 17,18]. This reaction was similarly applied to 2-substituted 1,6-dienes, which provided the analogous cyclopentane derivatives in up to 99% ee with similar diastereoselectivities [19]. When cyclic, internal olefins were used, spirocyclic compounds were isolated. The enantioselection in these reactions is thought to derive from either the ate or the transmetallation step. The stereoselectivity of this reaction has been extended to the selective reaction of enantiotopic olefin compounds to form bicyclic products such as 28, in 24% yield and 59% ee after deprotection (Eq. 5) [20]. 

The palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction featured in this procedure occurs under neutral conditions in the presence of many synthetically useful functional groups (e.g. alcohol, ester, nitro, acetal, ketone, and aldehyde). The reaction works best in N,N-dimethylformamide with bis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(ll) chloride, PdCI2(PPh3)2, as the catalyst. Lithium chloride is added to prevent decomposition of the catalyst.143 13 It is presumed that conversion of the intermediate aryl palladium triflate to an aryl palladium chloride is required for the transmetallation step to proceed.9... 

The transmetalation step, often rate-limiting, is the step to which attention should be directed if the reaction goes awry, (c) finally, with appropriate syn geometry, intermediate 14 undergoes a facile reductive elimination step to produce the coupling adduct R2—Ri (15), regenerating palladium(O) catalyst 10 to close the catalytic cycle. 

While the transmetalation step is often the rate-determining step for Pd-catalyzed reactions with organometallics, the oxidative addition step is often the rate-determining step in the Heck reactions, although olefin insertion can be rate-limiting in some cases — this is why the Heck reactions of tri- and tetra-substituted olefins sometimes proceed slower than those of di-substituted and terminal olefins. 

The mechanism was proposed to involve the formation of a nickel metallacycle by the oxidative cyclization of Ni(0) with the aldehyde and alkyne, followed by conversion of the metallacycle to product by a transmetalation/reductive elimination sequence. If R possesses a P-hydrogen, then P-hydride elimination after the transmetalation step generates the product with R = H in some instances. The mechanism was shown to be ligand dependent, and the mechanism depicted below is undoubtedly oversimplified. ... 

Figure 3.52). Based on the catalytic cycle described in Figure 3.53, it was proposed that the stereochemical outcome of this coupling reaction is determined at or after the transmetallation step, since the ee of the product depends on the nature of the Grignard reagent (e.g., entry 1 vs. entry 4). 

Aldol reactions of silyl enolates are promoted by a catalytic amount of transition metals through transmetallation generating transition metal enolates. In 1995, Shibasaki and Sodeoka reported an enantioselective aldol reaction of enol silyl ethers to aldehydes using a Pd-BINAP complex in wet DMF. Later, this finding was extended to a catalytic enantioselective Mannich-type reaction to a-imino esters by Sodeoka s group [Eq. (13.21)]. Detailed mechanistic studies revealed that the binuclear p-hydroxo complex 34 is the active catalyst, and the reaction proceeds through a palladium enolate. The transmetallation step would be facilitated by the hydroxo ligand transfer onto the silicon atom of enol silyl ethers ... 

Remarkably, the reversibility of the transmetalation step between 4 and 5 has been demonstrated with a lower temperature favoring the lithio compound 5. 

Following the oxidative addition, in the transmetalation step the anionic form of the heteroatom containing coupling partner (amide, alkoxide) is transferred onto the palladium, which is usually achieved by the combined use of the neutral form of the nucleophile and a suitable base. The choice of the proper base might be crucial for the success of the coupling. The transmetalation, as depicted in Figure 2-3, usually follows a coordination-... 

In equation 7.1. a 4-chloropyridine was coupled with diethyl(3-pyridyl)borane.3 The reaction was run in aqueous THF in the presence of potassium carbonate. The role of the base is to facilitate the transmetalation step through the formation of a borate ion, as organoboranes are usually not nucleophilic enough to transfer their organic moiety onto the palladium. An alternate function of the base is to increase the electrophilicity of the palladium through exchange of the halide to carbonate. 

The starting material bis(pinacolato)diboron is a poor Lewis acid and 1 B-NMR of KOAc and B2bin2 in DMSO-d6 shows no evidence of the coordination of the acetoxy anion to a boron atom leading to a tetrahedral activated species. However, the formation of an (acetato)palladium(II) complex after the oxidative addition of the halide influences the reaction rate of the transmetalation step. The Pd-O bond, which consists of a hard Lewis base with a soft Lewis acid, is more reactive than a Pd-X (X=Br, I) bond. In addition, the high oxophilicity of boron has to be considered as a driving force for the transmetalation step, which involves an acetato ligand. 

In 2006, Yu et al. combined pyridinyl-directed C-H activation and C-C bond formation with alkylboronic acids (see Section 10.5.4.2).23 The success of this transformation relied on the combination of palladium acetate (10 mol%), benzoquinone (1 equiv), and silver oxide or carbonate (0.5 equiv) in a protic solvent, but an excess of boronic acid (3 equiv) was required (Scheme 10.9). Interestingly, in this reaction silver oxide played a dual role as promoter for the transmetallation step and as cooxidant with benzoquinone. 

As before, a silver ion and its counterion could act together in the transmetallation step, such as depicted in Scheme 10.44. Such a hypothesis seemed supported by the discovery in 2006 that 2-pyridinyl, but not 3-pyridinyl, allylsilanes reacted under similar conditions and transferred the pyridine moiety to various aryl iodides (Scheme 10.45).78 In this coupling, the nitrogen atom of the pyridinyl moiety probably played a role similar to that of the hydroxyl group in the silanol-based Hiyama couplings. 

Further investigations including 109Ag NMR confirmed the in situ formation of alkynyl silver through jt complexation and proton abstraction.117 They also revealed that the best palladium catalyst, namely, palladium tetrakis(triphenylphosphine), played a key role, in that a phosphine liberated by decoordination ended up on the alkynyl silver, stabilizing it and rendering it more soluble.118 The resulting alkynyl silver then entered the palladium catalytic cycle at the transmetallation step (See section 10.6.2).105... 

Even PhLi can be used to transmetallate a primary alkyl iodide if the product organolithium is consumed by a subsequent reaction. For example, the norbornane derivative 8 forms in good yield on treatment of 7 with PhLi, despite the thermodynamic unfavourability of the transmetallation step.13... 

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