Preparation of Secondary Phosphine Oxide Ligands through Nucleophilic Attack on Imines and Their Applications in Palladium‐Catalyzed Catellani Reactions

Abstract

Several new amino‐type secondary phosphine oxide (SPO) pre‐ligands (3a–3h) that contain P–N bonds were synthesized and characterized. SPOs 3a–3h can tautomerize to phosphinous acids (PA, 3a–3h) as genuine ligands. The formation of SPOs 3a–3h occurred first through nucleophilic attack on the imine carbon atom, then by the addition of RPCl2 (R = Ph, Cy, tBu, or iPr), and work‐up under acidic conditions. The P–N bond in the newly prepared SPOs is evident from the crystal structures of SPOs 3d and 3h. Reactions of SPOs 3f, 3g, or 3h with Pd(COD)Cl2 (COD = cyclooctadiene) yielded palladium complexes 6f, 6g, or 6h. In these crystal structures, PAs 3f, 3g, and 3h act as didentate ligands through P and N donors. Intriguingly, the reaction of SPO 3f with Pd(COD)Cl2 also gave rise to palladium complexes 7fa, 7fb, and 8f. The crystal structures of 7fa and 7fb show that the palladium atom is chelated by PA 3f and coordinated by a phosphine‐like ligand fragmented from SPO 3f through C–N bond dissociation. Finally, the syntheses of carbazole derivatives were pursued in Catellani reactions with SPOs 3g and 3h as pre‐ligands. A mechanism is proposed to account for the catalytic reaction (see the Supporting Information). The optimized conditions for Suzuki reactions using selected SPO ligands are also reported.