Imidazolium-tagged ferrocenyl diphosphanes in allylic substitution with heteroatom nucleophiles

Imidazolium-tagged ferrocenyl diphosphanes are useful ligands in palladium-catalyzed allylic substitutions with heteroatom nucleophiles. Substitution with phthalimide proceeds with high enantioselectivity (up to 92% ee) in various ionic liquids. Reaction with p-cresol as nucleophile affords allylation product in up to 62% ee, while using tolylsulfinate as a nucleophile gives a product with very little or no enantioselectivity. Under these reaction conditions, catalyst recyclability is challenging, and decrease in activity as well as enantioselectivity was observed.