Palladium/norbornene catalysis: a versatile aryl C–H hydroxyalkylation, alkyl cinnamate formation

Palladium/Norbornene Cooperative Catalysis

Palladium/norbornene cooperative catalysis has emerged as a distinct approach to construct polyfunctionalized arenes from readily available starting materials. This Review provides a comprehensive overview of this field, including the early stoichiometric investigations, catalytic reaction developments, as well as the applications in the syntheses of bioactive compounds and polymers. The section of catalytic reactions is divided into two parts according to the reaction initiation mode: Pd(0)-initiated reactions and Pd(II)-initiated reactions.

Alkylating Reagents Employed in Catellani-Type Reactions

The Catellani reaction is a powerful strategy that allows the expeditious synthesis of highly substituted arenes, which are not easily accessible through traditional transition-metal-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions. This reaction utilizes the synergistic interplay of palladium and norbornene catalysis to facilitate sequential ortho-C-H functionalization and ipso termination of aryl iodides in a single operation. Since pioneering work by the group of Catellani in 1997, and later by the group of Lautens, this chemistry has attracted considerable attention from the synthetic chemistry community. Dramatic progress has been made by a number of groups in the past two decades. In this Minireview, the alkylating reagents employed in this intriguing reaction and the corresponding applications in organic synthesis are summarized; thus complementing existing reviews to inspire future developments.

Sequential one-pot approach for the synthesis of functionalized phthalans via Heck-reduction–cyclization (HRC) reactions

An efficient and practical method is described for the direct synthesis of 1,3-dihydroisobenzofurans, an important structural motif present in biologically active natural or synthetic compounds.

Palladium/norbornene chemistry: an unexpected route to methanocarbazole derivatives via three Csp3–Csp2/Csp3–N/Csp2–N bond formations in a single synthetic sequence

A simple route to obtain fused indolinesviaa palladium-catalyzed norbornene-mediated Heck reaction/C–H activation/double amination cascade is described.