Thiazole palladium chemistry

Palladium chemistry involving heterocycles has its unique characteristics stemming from the heterocycles inherently different structural and electronic properties in comparison to the corresponding carbocyclic aryl compounds. One example illustrating the striking difference in reactivity between a heteroarene and a carbocyclic arene is the heteroaryl Heck reaction (vide infra, see Section 1.4). We define a heteroaryl Heck reaction as an intermolecular or an intramolecular Heck reaction occurring onto a heteroaryl recipient. Intermolecular Heck reactions of carbocyclic arenes as the recipients are rare [12a-d], whereas heterocycles including thiophenes, furans, thiazoles, oxazoles, imidazoles, pyrroles and indoles, etc. are excellent substrates. For instance, the heteroaryl Heck reaction of 2-chloro-3,6-diethylpyrazine (1) and benzoxazole occurred at the C(2) position of benzoxazole to elaborate pyrazinylbenzoxazole 2 [12e]. 

Thiazole is a jt-electron-excessive heterocycle. The electronegativity of the N-atom at the 3-position makes C(2) partially electropositive and therefore susceptible to nucleophilic attack. In contrast, electrophilic substitution of thiazoles preferentially takes place at the electron-rich C(5) position. More relevant to palladium chemistry, 2-halothiazoles and 2-halobenzothiazoles are prone to undergo oxidative addition to Pd(0) and the resulting o-heteroaryl palladium complexes participate in various coupling reactions. Even 2-chlorothiazole and 2-chlorobenzothiazole are viable substrates for Pd-catalyzed reactions. 

Two of the most frequently used approaches for halothiazole synthesis are direct halogenation of thiazoles and the Sandmeyer reaction of aminothiazoles. The third method, an exchange between a stannylthiazole and a halogen, is not practical in the context of palladium chemistry simply because the stannylthiazole can be used directly in a Stille coupling. 

Suzuki-Miyaura reactions are perhaps the most widely employed palladium catalyzed cross-couplings in the realm of thiazole medicinal chemistry. They typically take place only when the thiazole is an electrophile in the transformation. The nucleophilic thiazole boronic acid or ester, especially at the 2-position, is relatively unstable and therefore difficult to prepare. The electrophiles namely the 2-, 4-, or 5-substituted halothiazoles are often readily accessible in terms of their synthetic ease or commercial availability. A remarkable application has been described by Jang et al. in the discovery... 

Condensation of aryl halides with various active methylene compounds is readily promoted by catalytic action of palladium to give the corresponding arene derivatives containing a functionalized ethyl group [7]. Yamanaka et al. extended this chemistry to haloazoles including oxazoles, thiazoles and imidazoles [8]. Thus, in the presence of Pd(Ph3P)4,2-chlorooxazole was refluxed with phenylsulfonylacetonitrile and NaH to form 4,5-diphenyl-a-phenylsulfonyl-2-oxazoloacetonitrile, which existed predominantly as its enamine tautomer. In a similar fashion, 4-bromooxazole and 5-bromooxazole also were condensed with phenylsulfonylacetonitrile under the same conditions. 

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