Decarboxylative
coupling reactions of alkynyl carboxylic acids
with aryl tosylates were developed in the presence of a palladium
catalyst. Among the commercially available phosphine ligands, only
1-dicyclohexylphosphino-2-(di-
tert
–butylphosphino-ethyl)ferrocene
(CyPF-
t
Bu) showed good reactivity. The reaction took
place smoothly and gave the decarboxylative coupled products in moderate
to good yields. This demonstrates the excellent functional group tolerance
toward alkyl, alkoxy, fluoro, thiophenyl, ester, and ketone groups.
In addition, alkyl-substituted propiolic acids, such as octynoic and
hexynoic acids, were coupled with phenyl tosylate to provide the desired
products. We found that the electronic properties of the substituents
on the phenyl ring in arylpropiolic acids are an important factor.
The order of reactivity was found to be aryl iodide > aryl bromide
> aryl tosylate > aryl chloride. However, aryl chloride-bearing
electron-withdrawing
groups showed higher reactivity than those bearing aryl tosylates.