Palladium-catalyzed carbonylative synthesis of arylacetamides from benzyl formates and tertiary amines

Abstract

An efficient and straightforward palladium-catalyzed carbonylation of benzyl formates and tertiary amines has been explored. In this reaction, benzyl formates were successfully utilized both as CO surrogates and benzyl alcohol substrates, and a variety of arylacetamides were obtained in high yields with good functional group tolerance. Notably, tertiary amines were used as an amine source through a C–N bond cleavage pathway in the absence of additional oxidants.