The role of hypervalent iodine(iii) reagents in promoting alkoxylation of unactivated C(sp)-H bonds catalyzed by palladium(ii) complexes.

Although Pd(OAc)-catalysed alkoxylation of the C(sp)-H bonds mediated by hypervalent iodine(iii) reagents (ArIX) has been developed by several prominent researchers, there is no clear mechanism yet for such crucial transformations. In this study, we shed light on this important issue with the aid of the density functional theory (DFT) calculations for alkoxylation of butyramide derivatives. We found that the previously proposed mechanism in the literature is not consistent with the experimental observations and thus cannot be operating.