Highly efficient palladacycle-catalyzed carboxylation of benzyl alcohols

Abstract

A general and practical carboxylation of benzyl alcohols using the air- and moisture-stable Herrmann-Beller palladacycle was developed. With this novel methodology, numerous carboxylated products were constructed and various functional groups were tolerated. More specifically, some prevailing anti-inflammatory drugs, Ibuprofen, Naproxen, Fenoprofen and Flurbiprofen were all successfully synthesized with this novel procedure. Gram scale experiments revealed the industrial potentiality of this procedure. Several interesting control experiments were performed, and the general reaction pathway was proposed.