Oxidative coupling of sp2 and sp3 carbon–hydrogen bonds to construct dihydrobenzofurans

• Published in: Nature communications 2017-08, Vol.8 (1)
• Main Authors: Shi, Jiang-Ling, Wang, Ding, Zhang, Xi-Sha, Li, Xiao-Lei, Chen, Yu-Qin, Li, Yu-Xue, Shi, Zhang-Jie
• Format: Article
• Language: eng ; jpn
• Subjects: 639/638/403; 639/638/77; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Science; Science (multidisciplinary)
• ISSN: 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00078-6

Metal-catalyzed cross-couplings provide powerful, concise, and accurate methods to construct carbon–carbon bonds from organohalides and organometallic reagents. Recent developments extended cross-couplings to reactions where one of the two partners connects with an aryl or alkyl carbon–hydrogen bond. From an economic and environmental point of view, oxidative couplings between two carbon–hydrogen bonds would be ideal. Oxidative coupling between phenyl and “inert” alkyl carbon–hydrogen bonds still awaits realization. It is very difficult to develop successful strategies for oxidative coupling of two carbon–hydrogen bonds owning different chemical properties. This article provides a solution to this challenge in a convenient preparation of dihydrobenzofurans from substituted phenyl alkyl ethers. For the phenyl carbon–hydrogen bond activation, our choice falls on the carboxylic acid fragment to form the palladacycle as a key intermediate. Through careful manipulation of an additional ligand, the second “inert” alkyl carbon–hydrogen bond activation takes place to facilitate the formation of structurally diversified dihydrobenzofurans. Cross-dehydrogenative coupling is finding increasing application in synthesis, but coupling two chemically distinct sites remains a challenge. Here, the authors report an oxidative coupling between sp 2 and sp 3 carbons by sequentially activating the more active aryl site followed by the alkyl position.