An efficient palladium(II) catalyst for oxidative Heck-type reaction under base-free conditions

An efficient catalytic system for the palladium-catalyzed oxidative Heck reaction between arylboronic acids and various alkenes has been developed. Using the bis(aminoalkoxy)palladium complex of N,N-dimethylethanolamine as a catalyst, a series of substituted alkenes were obtained in moderate to excellent yields under mild reaction conditions. This protocol could be tolerated to arylboronic acids containing electron-donating or withdrawing groups and a wide range of olefins, such as acrylate, allyl esters, allyl ethers and alkenylphosphonate. A plausible reaction mechanism of the oxidative Heck reaction was proposed.