Regio- and Stereoselective Pd-Catalyzed Direct Arylation of Unactivated sp3 C(3)–H Bonds of Tetrahydrofuran and 1,4-Benzodioxane Systems

An auxiliary-enabled Pd-catalyzed highly regio- and stereoselective sp3 C–H activation and the direct arylation of the C3-position of oxygen heterocycles, such as tetrahydrofuran and 1,4-benzodioxane systems, are reported. An efficient stereoselective construction of cis 2,3-disubstituted tetrahydrofuran derivatives (analogues of norlignans) and cis 2,3-disubstituted 1,4-benzodioxane derivatives (analogues of neolignans) is described. The direct C­(sp3)–H arylation of the C3-position of (R)- or (S)- tetrahydrofuran-2-carboxamides furnished the corresponding (2R,3R) and (2S,3S) C3-arylated THF scaffolds as major compounds with very high regio- and diastereoselectivities. The stereochemistry of the products obtained in this work were unambiguously assigned on the basis of the X-ray structure analyses of representative compounds 3b, 3e, 4p, and 7.