Pd(OH)2/C, a Practical and Efficient Catalyst for the Carboxylation of Benzylic Bromides with Carbon Monoxide

Exploiting Chloroform-COware Chemistry for Pd-Catalyzed Carbonylation of Naturally Occurring and Medicinally Relevant Phenols

In this study, a ligand-free palladium-catalyzed carbonylation of phenols is conducted under ambient conditions, utilizing the "Chloroform-COware" chemistry. The developed methodology enables the conversion of diverse medicinally relevant phenols, encompassing both natural and synthetic derivatives, into their respective aryl ester counterparts. This transformation is achieved through the reaction with a broad spectrum of aryl and heteroaryl iodides. The protocol is characterized by its simplicity, generality, and wide substrate scope, delivering bioactive aryl ester derivatives in good to excellent yields. A direct comparison with the one-pot approach, resulting in poor yields of aryl esters, highlights the superior efficiency of the two-chamber setup (COware). Moreover, we successfully applied this two-chamber technique for gram-scale synthesis and postmodification of the synthesized ester to a pharmaceutically important benzocoumarin core.

Carbonylative Transformations Using a DMAP-Based Pd-Catalyst through Ex Situ CO Generation

A phosphine-free, efficient protocol for aminocarbonylation and carbonylative Suzuki-Miyaura coupling has been developed using a novel palladium complex, [PdII(DMAP)2(OAc)2]. The complex was successfully synthesized using a stoichiometric reaction between PdII(OAc)2 and DMAP in acetone at room temperature and characterized using single-crystal X-ray analysis. Only 5 mol % catalyst loading was sufficient for effective carbonylative transformations. "Chloroform-COware" chemistry was utilized for safe and facile insertion of the carbonyl unit using chloroform as an inexpensive CO source in a two-chamber setup. Various value-added pharmaceutically relevant compounds such as CX-516, CX-546, and farampator were synthesized using the technique. Furthermore, the commercially designed COware was engineered to COware-RB setup for sequential one-pot synthesis of indenoisoquinolines (topoisomerase I inhibitors).

Carbonylation of Polyfluorinated 1-Arylalkan-1-ols and Diols in Superacids

We describe the carbonylation of a series of mono and dihydroxy derivatives of polyfluorinated alkylbenzenes and benzocycloalkenes with OH groups at benzylic positions using carbon monoxide in the presence of a superacid (TfOH, a TfOH-SbF₅ mixture, or a FSO₃H-SbF₅ mixture). It was shown that the superacid-catalyzed addition of CO to various primary and secondary polyfluorinated alcohols and diols gives the corresponding mono- and dicarboxylic acids or lactones. The efficiency of various superacids depending on alcohol structure was evaluated, and FSO₃H-SbF₅ yielded the best results in most transformations. The addition of CO to secondary 1-arylalkan-1-ols containing vicinal fluorine atoms was found to be accompanied by elimination of HF with the formation of α,β-unsaturated aryl-carboxylic acids. In contrast to primary and secondary alcohols, conversion of tertiary perfluoro-1,1-diarylalkan-1-ols into carbonylation products is not complete, and the resulting carboxylic acids are easily decarboxylated after water treatment of the reaction mixture.