Native carboxylate-assisted palladium/norbornene-mediated distal C–H functionalization of ferrocene

Abstract

Herein, we disclose a ligand-enabled, auxiliary-free, native carboxylate-assisted Pd/norbornene (NBE)-mediated highly regioselective C(3)-arylation of commercially available ferrocene carboxylic acids. This unique approach utilizes the Catellani-type reaction for distal C–H activation in ferrocene, where the weak chelation-assisted palladacycle formed by proximal C–H activation relays the palladium to the distal C(3)-position mediated by NBE, resulting in C–C bond formation with aryl iodides.