Amide-Ligand-Controlled Highly para-Selective Arylation of Monosubstituted Simple Arenes with Arylboronic Acids.

Pd-catalyzed highly para-selective arylations of monosubstituted simple arenes with arylboronic acids to widely existed biaryls have been developed. Inspired by requisite amide-directing groups in reported selective oxidative couplings, amide ligands, especially DMF, are designed and found to be critical for the selectivity control in current arylations.

Iron-Catalyzed Regioselective Transfer Hydrogenative Couplings of Unactivated Aldehydes with Simple Alkenes.

An FeBr3 -catalyzed reductive coupling of various aldehydes with alkenes that proceeds through a direct hydride transfer pathway has been developed. With (i) PrOH as the hydrogen donor under mild conditions, previously challenging coupling reactions of unactivated alkyl and aryl aldehydes with simple alkenes, such as styrene derivatives and α-olefins, proceeded smoothly to furnish a diverse range of functionalized alcohols with complete linear regioselectivity.