A diversity-oriented approach to the palladium-catalyzed modular assembly of conjugated compounds and heterocycles: high-value compounds from trichloroethylene

Abstract

Trichloroethylene, a simple and very inexpensive material, has been identified as a tri- and tetrafunctionalizable building block. A combination of selective palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions with standard lithiation and electrophilic quenching yields a wide variety of unsaturated linear or cyclic compounds in excellent yields in few synthetic steps. Dichlorovinyl ethers, obtained from a nucleophilic displacement reaction with trichloroethylene, are the basic starting materials. Two sets of conditions have been developed to achieve the reaction of either electron-rich or –deficient phenols with trichloroethylene to give the resultant dichlorovinyl ethers in high yields. Site selective palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling for the specific functionalization of a single C-Cl bond was developed, and could install alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl and (hetero)aryl moieties. The resulting electrophiles could be reacted with a second organometallic nucleophile forming trisubstituted, electron-rich alkenes, dienes, trienes or enynes in only two or three steps. Alternatively, the product from the first cross-coupling reaction could be isolated, deprotonated and quenched with an electrophile, then cross-coupled with a second organometallic nucleophile to give tetrasubstituted, electron-rich alkenes and dienes. In the course of studying the site selective cross-coupling, it was found that prolonged exposure of the C1-functionalized materials to palladium promoted an intramolecular C-H activation, forming 2-substituted benzofurans. This reaction proved to be very general, and a wide variety of benzofurans were synthesized, containing both electron-withdrawing and electron-donating group groups in the donor arenes, as well as alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl and aryl functionalities at the 2-position. This method was also extended to the synthesis of 2-substituted indoles from anilines, trichloroethylene and boronic acids.