Volume 46, Issue 1 e27513
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Theoretical design of new ligands to boost reaction rate and selectivity in palladium-catalyzed aromatic fluorination

Josefredo R. Pliego Jr

Corresponding Author

Josefredo R. Pliego Jr

Departamento de Ciências Naturais, Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei, São João del-Rei, MG, Brazil

Correspondence

Josefredo R. Pliego Jr, Departamento de Ciências Naturais, Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei, 36301-160 São João del-Rei, MG, Brazil.

Email: [email protected]

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First published: 01 October 2024
Citations: 1

Abstract

The development of palladium-catalyzed fluorination with biaryl monophosphine ligands has faced two important problems that limit its application for bromoarenes: the formation of regioisomers and insufficient catalysis for heteroaryl substrates as bromothiophene derivatives. Overcoming these problems requires more ligand design. In this work, reliable theoretical calculations were used to elucidate important ligand features necessary for achieving more rate acceleration and selectivity. These features include increasing the ligand-substrate repulsion and creating a negative charge in the space around the fluoride ion bonded to the palladium. The investigated L5 ligand presents these features, and the calculations predict that this ligand completely suppresses the regioisomer formation in the difficult case of 4-bromoanisole. In addition, the free energy barriers are decreased by 2–3 kcal mol−1 in comparison with the catalysis involving the AlPhos ligand. Thus, the present study points out a direction for new developments in palladium-catalyzed fluorination.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

There are no conflicts to declare.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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