Zinc reagents cross-coupling with alkyl halides

The insight that zinc ester enolates can be prepared prior to the addition of the electrophile has largely expanded the scope of the Reformatsky reaction.1-3 Substrates such as azomethines that quaternize in the presence of a-halo-esters do react without incident under these two-step conditions.23 The same holds true for acyl halides which readily decompose on exposure to zinc dust, but react properly with preformed zinc ester enolates in the presence of catalytic amounts of Pd(0) complexes.24 Alkylations of Reformatsky reagents are usually difficult to achieve and proceed only with the most reactive agents such as methyl iodide or benzyl halides.25 However, zinc ester enolates can be cross-coupled with aryl- and alkenyl halides or -triflates, respectively, in the presence of transition metal catalysts in a Negishi-type reaction.26 Table 14.2 compiles a few selected examples of Reformatsky reactions with electrophiles other than aldehydes or ketones.27... 

Scheme 5-92. Cross-coupling of zinc reagents with alkyl halides. ...

With the development of the cross coupling methodology, many 6-C-substituted purines have been prepared in the past decade. Thus, 6 halopurine derivatives react with arylmagnesium halides,25 alkyl(aryl)zinc or tin reagents,26 trialkylaluminum,27 or alkylcuprates28 to give the 6-alkylpurine derivatives. Also a reverse approach based on the reaction of purine-6-zinc iodide with aryl or vinyl halides has recently been described.29 For the synthesis of 6-arylpurines, an alternative approach makes use of radical photochemical reactions of adenine derivatives with aromatic compounds,30 but this method is very unselective and for substituted benzenes, mixtures of ortho-, meta-, and para substituted derivatives were obtained. 

Cobalt has attracted attention in recent years as a cost-effective and sustainable alternative to palladium or nickel. As indicated earlier, functionalized arylzinc reagents can be prepared from aryl halides and sulfonates by zinc insertion in the presence of catalytic amounts of CoBtj [50, 51, 210). Interestingly, the presence of this cobalt salt suffices to catalyze in situ the cross-coupling of the arylzincs thus produced with aryl, alkyl, and heteroaryl electrophiles such as organic halides [211-214] or thioethers, as exemplified with the formation of 286 [214] (Scheme 4.63). 

The addition of LiCI also strongly enhances the rate of zinc insertion into alkyl halides, making possible a very simple and versatile preparation of functionalized alkylzinc reagents of type 247, which can be in situ trapped with various electrophiles or subjected to cross-coupling reactions (Scheme 2-98). ... 

---