New frontiers in palladium-catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylations [electronic resource]
Keywords: Chemistry

The research described in this dissertation defines two endeavors into the field of palladium-catalyzed allylic alkylation chemistry: the employment of unstabilized nitrogen-containing aromatic heterocycles as nucleophiles and the use of C--H activation to access [pi]-allyl-palladium electrophiles. With regard to the former program, we demonstrate that 2-methylpyridines, substrates whose corresponding anions are too unstabilized to react productively in palladium-catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylation (AAA) reactions, form complexes when exposed to boron trifluoride diethyl etherate that can be deprotonated with lithium hexamethyldisilazide to afford competent nucleophiles for AAA processes. Investigations into the reaction mechanism establish that the configuration of the allylic stereocenter of the electrophile is retained, a finding that is consistent with the canonical outer sphere mechanism invoked for palladium-catalyzed allylic substitution processes of stabilized anions. We also show that under modified conditions, this protocol is applicable to the highly regio-, diastereo-, and enantioselective allylic alkylation of 2-substituted pyridines, reactions that form homoallylic stereocenters containing alkyl, aryl, heteroaryl, and nitrogen substituents. When the reaction is correspondingly performed with unsymmetric acyclic electrophiles, both linear and branched products may be obtained regio- and enantioselectively by choosing the appropriate regioisomeric starting material and ligand. We further report that this strategy extends to reactions of a variety of nitrogen-containing aromatic heterocycles, including pyrazines, pyrimidines, pyridazines, quinoxalines, benzoimidazoles, and tetrazoles. The mesityl ester, whose steric bulk prevents competitive deacylation of the electrophile from these nucleophiles, is introduced as a new leaving group in allylic alkylation chemistry. We describe the first general palladium-catalyzed allylic alkylation of 1,4-dienes that proceeds via C--H activation. A broad range of nucleophiles undergo reaction with variously substituted 1,4-dienes under relatively mild conditions, providing direct access to the corresponding 1,3-diene-containing products with high regio- and stereocontrol. This is the first catalytic allylic alkylation that proceeds via C--H activation in the absence of sulfoxide ligands, a discovery that provides for further developments in this chemistry enabled by phosphorus-based ligands. This finding is applied to a new assisted tandem catalytic process that effects sequential palladium(0)-catalyzed allylic alkylations via leaving group ionization and palladium(II)-catalyzed allylic alkylations via C--H activation. By employing an oxidative trigger to convert the initial palladium(0) species to a palladium(II) one, both transformations can be conducted in a single reaction vessel using the same precatalyst. This strategy allows for the introduction of otherwise indistinguishable allyl groups by exploiting complementary catalytic redox cycles. Finally, we detail the discovery and development of the first catalytic enantioselective palladium-catalyzed allylic C--H alkylations, an achievement made possible by a novel class of pyroglutamic-based phosphoramidite ligands. A wide array of sterically and electronically diverse allylarenes undergo allylic substitution by 2-acetyl-1-tetralones to form quaternary carbon stereocenters. Control experiments verify that this palladium-catalyzed process involves direct allylic alkylation, rather than initial allylic C--H acetoxylation. This conceptually and mechanistically distinct strategy averts many of the chemoselectivity issues inherent to traditional methods for the synthesis of enantioenriched allylic substitution products, providing the groundwork for the next generation of palladium-catalyzed allylic alkylation methods.