One-Pot Alkene Hydroboration/Palladium-Catalyzed Migratory Suzuki–Miyaura Cross-Coupling

Chain-walking is a powerful approach toward the functionalization of C–H bonds remote to a functional group. Whereas various Pd-catalyzed migratory cross-couplings have been developed in the past years, the design of an efficient migratory version of the popular Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling has remained elusive. The current article reports a one-pot procedure consisting of alkene hydroboration and migratory Suzuki–Miyaura coupling of the resulting alkylboronic acid intermediate. A high regioselectivity for the benzylic position of the initial alkene was achieved by using P(t-Bu)2Me as the ligand and an ortho-substituted aryl electrophile. Regioconvergence from alkene positional and geometrical isomers and long-range migration were demonstrated. Mechanistic investigations indicated that the migration occurs through a partially reversible, nondissociative mechanism.