Palladium-Catalyzed Decarbonylative Coupling of (Hetero)Aryl Boronate Esters with Difluorobenzyl Glutarimides.

This report describes the Pd-catalyzed decarbonylative coupling of difluorobenzyl glutarimides with (hetero)aryl boronate esters to yield difluorobenzyl-substituted (hetero)arene products. The use of PAd2Bu as the phosphine ligand in combination with neopentylboronate ester nucleophiles proved critical for the selective formation of the decarbonylative coupling product versus analogous difluorobenzyl ketone. This transformation is effective for electronically diverse (hetero)aryl boronate esters and substituted difluorobenzyl glutarimides.