Ruthenium-Catalyzed PIII-Directed Remote ε-C-H Alkylation of Phosphines

Org Lett. 2021 Mar 19;23(6):2052-2056. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.0c03906. Epub 2021 Feb 25.

Abstract

The ruthenium-catalyzed remote ε-C-H alkylation of phosphines with tertiary alkyl halides has been developed. This novel PIII-directed C-H activation strategy tolerated various functional groups and delivered a wide variety of modified phosphines with excellent meta-site selectivity. Preliminary mechanistic studies indicated that a PIII-assisted ortho-cyclometalation/remote σ-activation pathway might be involved in this methodology.