Efficient formation of benzylic quaternary centers via palladium catalysis.

Four's a crowd: An efficient protocol for the formation of benzylic quaternary centers via arylation of enones using a catalyst made from Pd(O2 CCF3 )2 and 2,2'-bipyridine is developed. For cyclic substrates, catalyst loadings as low as 1 mol % Pd are enough to afford excellent yields (>90%) using a variety of arylboronic acids. In case of acyclic substrates, the addition of KSbF6 was found to improve conversions and yields.

Palladium-catalyzed asymmetric quaternary stereocenter formation.

An efficient palladium catalyst is presented for the formation of benzylic quaternary stereocenters by conjugate addition of arylboronic acids to a variety of β,β-disubstituted carbocyclic, heterocyclic, and acyclic enones. The catalyst is readily prepared from PdCl(2), PhBOX, and AgSbF(6), and provides products in up to 99% enantiomeric excess, with good yields. Based on this strategy, (-)-α-cuparenone has been prepared in only two steps.

Pd-diimine: a highly selective catalyst system for the base-free oxidative Heck reaction.

Pd(OAc)(2)/3 is an efficient catalyst system for the base-free oxidative Heck reaction that outperforms the currently available catalysts for the more challenging substrates studied. The catalyst system is highly selective, and works at room temperature with dioxygen as the oxidant.

Pd-NHC catalyzed conjugate addition versus the Mizoroki-Heck reaction.

Ace of base: A catalytic system is presented that, solely by choice of the base, selectively switches between conjugate addition and the Mizoroki-Heck reaction of aryl halides with Michael acceptors (see scheme; R, R' = alkyl, aryl). For conjugate addition reactions, this avoids the preparation and use of organometallics.