Dual selectivity: electrophile and nucleophile selective cross-coupling reactions on a single aromatic substrate.

The development of a high yielding, both nucleophile and electrophile selective cross-coupling reaction with aromatic rings is presented. The reaction is general with respect to functional groups. Furthermore, the products still contain a boronic ester and a bromide. These two functional groups allow them to be easy-to-prepare, highly complex starting materials for further reactions, avoiding protecting group transformations.

Chemoselective cross-coupling reactions with differentiation between two nucleophilic sites on a single aromatic substrate.

A new thiophene building block, containing both a stannyl group and a boronic ester, was prepared. From this starting material, a general, nucleophile-selective one-pot reaction was developed, exploiting the different reactivities of the Stille and Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions. A series of aromatic electrophiles were used to demonstrate the high functional group tolerance.