Transition metal reductive cross-coupling reactions

The transition-metal catalyzed cross-coupling reaction of (hetero)aryl hahdes and triflates with primary and secondary amines or (hetero)aryl amines is know as the Buchwald-Hartwig reaction [144]. Mechanistically, this reaction is related to the crosscoupling reactions outlined thus far (Fig. 4.6). The modification arises at the point of transmetalation. This step in the process is substituted with the coordination of the amine reactant. Deprotonation of the amine nitrogen now precedes the reductive elimination step to generate the aryl amine product. This reaction has foimd utility in the academic setting, for use in natural product total synthesis, and in industry, for the preparation of materials up to the multi-hundred kilogram scale. 

The introduction of a polyfluorinated chain is not so easy as that of an alkyl chain. Transition metal catalyzed cross-coupling of Grignard reagents and organozinc compounds are inefficient in the synthesis of polyfluorinated 3-alkylthiophene. The copper-catalyzed perfluoroalkylation results in the formation of 2-and 3-substituted thiophenes, which are difficult to separate from each other. The reaction of fluorinated alkylmagnesium iodide with 3-formylthiophene, follwed by reduction with lithium aluminum hydride, gave (22) in an overall yield of 40% [27]. 

Preparations of all these organic materials involve the constmction of new carbon-carbon bonds and have prompted the development of many catalytic cross-coupling reactions. One of the most reliable synthetic methods to form carbon-carbon bonds is transition metal-catalyzed cross-coupling between organo-metallic nucleophiles and electrophilic organic halides or pseudohalides, respectively (Scheme 2a). The mechanisms of common cross-coupling reactions such as the Suzuki, Negishi, or Stille catalysis can be described by a catalytic cycle, differ in detail, but all include three main steps in the order oxidative addition, transmetallation, and reductive elimination (Scheme 1). 

Inhibition by radical traps, such as TEMPO 17, was used to explain the involvement of radicals in the course of transition metal-catalyzed reactions (Fig. 7). Typical cross-coupling reactions, such as Heck or Suzuki-Miyaura reactions, proceeded even with nitroxyls as substrates, although the yields were sometimes low. Thus, nitroxyls do not necessarily interfere very much with the course of two-electron catalytic processes [79-81]. However, it must be critically mentioned that 17 and related nitroxides are both oxidants and reductants for metal species. 

Ru-catalyzed Suzuki-type cross-coupling reactions of aniline derivatives and organoboronates have been achieved via unreactive aryl C—N bond cleavage (Equation 11.48) [109]. The proposed reaction pathway is a sequence of oxidative addition of an unreactive aryl C—N bond to the late transition metal complex, followed by transmetalation between the Ru-NR2 species and organoboronates, and reductive elimination. 

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