Mild and Functional Group Tolerant Method for Tandem Palladium‐Catalyzed Carbocyclization–Coupling of ε‐Acetylenic β‐Ketoesters with Aryl Bromides and Chlorides

Abstract

Abstract We report a new protocol for the annulative difunctionalization of acetylenes via tandem carbocyclization–coupling of ε‐acetylenic β‐ketoesters with aryl and heteroaryl bromides and chlorides catalyzed by the palladium species derived from an air‐ and moisture‐stable palladacyclic precatalyst. In the tandem process, the palladium complex combines appropriate carbophilic Lewis acidity and redox activity to catalyze two mechanistically distinct reactions ‐ nucleophilic addition of the enolate to unactivated alkyne, followed by CC coupling. We found that a broad range of electronically varied aryl and heteroaryl bromides and chlorides underwent this reaction with various ε‐acetylenic β‐ketoesters, providing corresponding substituted vinylidenecyclopentanes in high yield with excellent functional group tolerance. magnified image