Kinetic Studies on the Palladium(II)-Catalyzed Oxidative Cross-Coupling of Thiophenes with Arylboron Compounds and Their Mechanistic Implications

Reaction orders for the key components in the palladium(II)-catalyzed oxidative cross-coupling between phenylboronic acid and ethyl thiophen-3-yl acetate were obtained by the method of initial rates. It turned out that the reaction rate not only depended on the concentration of palladium trifluoroacetate (reaction order: 0.97) and phenylboronic acid (reaction order: 1.26), but also on the concentration of the thiophene (reaction order: 0.55) and silver oxide (reaction order: -1.27). NMR spectroscopy titration studies established the existence of 1:1 complexes between the silver salt and both phenylboronic acid and ethyl thiophen-3-yl acetate. A low inverse kinetic isotope effect (k_H/k_D=0.93) was determined upon employing the 4-deuterated isotopomer of ethyl thiophen-3-yl acetate and monitoring its reaction to the 4-phenyl-substituted product. A Hammett analysis performed with para-substituted 2-phenylthiophenes gave a negative ρ value for oxidative cross-coupling with phenylboronic acid. Based on the kinetic data and additional evidence, a mechanism is suggested that invokes transfer of the phenyl group from phenylboronic acid to a 1:1 complex of palladium trifluoroacetate and thiophene as the rate-determining step. Proposals for the structure of relevant intermediates are made and discussed.