Rate versus selectivity determining: The measurement of a kinetic isotope effect (KIE) can provide valuable information about the mechanism of a reaction, but care must be taken in the design and interpretation of KIE experiments. Depending on the experiment that is conducted, the observation of a primary KIE resulting from H/D substitution does not necessarily imply that CH bond cleavage occurs during the rate‐determining step of a reaction. FG=functional group.

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The borylation of arenes leads to the formation of synthetically versatile products from unactivated arene reagents. We report that Ir(I) precursors in conjunction with bipyridine ligands catalyze in high yields the borylation of arenes under mild conditions. These reactions encompase arenes bearing both electron-withdrawing and electron-donating substituents. The temperatures required for the transformation are much lower than those previously reported for direct arene borylation. The combination of [Ir(COE)2Cl]2 and (4,4-di-t-butyl)bipyridine even allows for reaction at room temperature. The same catalyst system at 100 degrees C provides remarkably high turnover numbers for a hydrocarbon functionalization process. Mechanistic studies show that the reactions involve uncommon, Ir(II) tris-boryl complexes. An example of this type of complex ligated by di-t-butylbipyridine was isolated and structurally characterized. It reacted rapidly at room temperature to produce aryl boronate esters in high yields.

ConspectusSynthetic methods to form the carbon-nitrogen bonds in aromatic amines are fundamental enough to be considered part of introductory organic courses. Arylamines are important because they are common precursors to or substructures within active pharmaceutical ingredients and herbicides produced on ton scales, as well as conducting polymers and layers of organic light-emitting diodes produced on small scale. For many years, this class of compound was prepared from classical methods, such as nitration, reduction and reductive alkylation, copper-mediated chemistry at high temperatures, addition to benzyne intermediates, or direct nucleophilic substitution on particularly electron-poor aromatic or heteroaromatic halides. During the past decade, these methods to form aromatic amines have been largely supplanted by palladium-catalyzed coupling reactions of amines with aryl halides. The scope and efficiency of the palladium-catalyzed processes has gradually improved with successive generations of catalysts to the point of being useful for the synthesis of both milligrams and kilograms of product.This Account describes the conceptual basis and utility of our latest, "fourth-generation" catalyst for the coupling of amines and related reagents with aryl halides. The introductory sections of this account describe the progression of catalyst development from the first-generation to current systems and the motivation for selection of the components of the fourth-generation catalyst. This progression began with catalysts containing palladium and sterically hindered monodentate aromatic phosphines used initially for coupling of tin amides with haloarenes in the first work on C-N coupling. A second generation of catalysts was then developed based on the combination of palladium and aromatic bisphosphines. These systems were then followed by third-generation systems catalysts on the combination of palladium and a sterically hindered alkylmonophosphine or N-heterocyclic carbene.During the past five years, we have studied a fourth-generation catalyst for these reactions containing ligands that combine the chelating properties of the second-generation systems with the steric hindrance and strong electron donation of the third-generation systems. This combination has created a catalyst that couples aryl chlorides, bromides and iodides with primary amines, N-H imines, and hydrazones in high yield, with broad scope, high functional group tolerance, nearly perfect selectivity for monoarylation, and the lowest levels of palladium that have been used for C-N coupling. This catalyst is based on palladium and a sterically hindered version of the Josiphos family of ligands that possesses a ferrocenyl-1-ethylbackbone, a hindered di-tert-butylphosphino group, and a hindered dicyclohexylphosphino group. This latest generation of catalyst not only improves the coupling of primary amines and related nucleophiles, but it has dramatically improved the coupling of thiols with haloarenes to form C-S bonds. This catalyst system couples both a...

Selective hydrogenolysis of the aromatic carbon-oxygen (C-O) bonds in aryl ethers is an unsolved synthetic problem important for the generation of fuels and chemical feedstocks from biomass and for the liquefaction of coal. Currently, the hydrogenolysis of aromatic C-O bonds requires heterogeneous catalysts that operate at high temperature and pressure and lead to a mixture of products from competing hydrogenolysis of aliphatic C-O bonds and hydrogenation of the arene. Here, we report hydrogenolyses of aromatic C-O bonds in alkyl aryl and diaryl ethers that form exclusively arenes and alcohols. This process is catalyzed by a soluble nickel carbene complex under just 1 bar of hydrogen at temperatures of 80 to 120°C; the relative reactivity of ether substrates scale as Ar-OAr>>Ar-OMe>ArCH(2)-OMe (Ar, Aryl; Me, Methyl). Hydrogenolysis of lignin model compounds highlights the potential of this approach for the conversion of refractory aryl ether biopolymers to hydrocarbons.