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.