Considerable efforts have been undertaken by numerous groups in academia and industry over the past decade to expand the repertoire of coupling reagents in palladium(0)-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions.[1] In particular, alkenyl phosphates and tosylates have proven their worth in various cross-coupling reactions, such as the Stille, [2] Suzuki, [2e,f, 3] Negishi, [2b] Kumada, [2b, 3e, 4] Sonogashira, [2-b,e,f, 5] Buchwald-Hartwig, [4a, 6] carbonyl enolate, [3d] and Heck couplings, [7] as effective alternatives to the less stable and typically more expensive alkenyl triflates and nonaflates. [8] However, the majority of this work has focused on the use of activated vinyl phosphates and tosylates, such as a,b-unsaturated systems or a-heteroatom-substituted alkenes, for which the oxidative-addition step is nonproblematic with palladium(0) catalysts bearing aryl phosphine ligands. Less attention has been devoted to nonactivated counterparts, most likely because of the greater difficulty in carrying out the first step of the catalytic cycle, namely the oxidative addition. [3d, 4, 5, 9] We now report on catalyst systems composed of a palladium complex with a basic, hindered alkyl phosphine that can promote the Heck coupling of nonactivated vinyl tosylates and phosphates with electron-deficient alkenes in good yields, thereby increasing the scope of this important cross-coupling reaction. Furthermore, during these studies we observed an interesting 1,2-isomerization with certain alkenyl tosylates and phosphates under reaction conditions that provide coupling yields as high as 95 %. A mechanistic proposal supported by experimental results and DFT calculations is included.To identify suitable reaction conditions for Heck couplings with nonactivated alkenyl tosylates and phosphates, we examined the use of palladium complexes with the ever increasingly popular bulky electron-rich phosphines.[10] All tosylates and phosphates were prepared from starting ketones by base-promoted proton extraction and reaction with tosyl anhydride (Ts 2 O) or (PhO) 2 POCl, as earlier reported. [4b, 11, 12] Initial coupling attempts were performed between the tosylate 1 and ethyl acrylate (Scheme 1). After examining a variety of reaction conditions, we noted that a combination of [PdCl 2 (cod)] (cod = 1,5-cyclooctadiene; 5 mol %) and the P(tBu) 3 HBF 4 salt [13] (10 mol %) in the presence of dicyclohexylmethylamine (2 equiv) in dimethylformamide (DMF) at 85 8C could furnish the diene 2, albeit in low yield (approximately 5 %). The addition of one equivalent of LiCl, however, had a dramatic effect on the reaction outcome, thus providing a 50 % yield of the diene 2 after 24 hours. [14] Increasing the reaction temperature to 100 8C improved the coupling yield to 66 %. Other reactions conditions, including change of solvent or examination of alternative catalyst combinations, were incapable of promoting the cross-coupling.To probe the scope of these reaction conditions, we examined the Heck coupling of a variety of alkenyl tosylates ...