Enhanced Excited-State Hydricity of Pd-H Allows for Unusual Head-to-Tail Hydroalkenylation of Alkenes

J Am Chem Soc. 2023 Jun 7;145(22):12224-12232. doi: 10.1021/jacs.3c02410. Epub 2023 May 24.

Abstract

Photoinduced enhancement of hydricity of palladium hydride species enables unprecedented hydride addition-like ("hydridic") hydropalladation of electron-deficient alkenes, which allows for chemoselective head-to-tail cross-hydroalkenylation of electron-deficient and electron-rich alkenes. This mild and general protocol works with a wide range of densely functionalized and complex alkenes. Notably, this approach also allows for highly challenging cross-dimerization of electronically diverse vinyl arenes and heteroarenes.