Highly Stereoselective Synthesis of 1,2-Disubstituted Indanes by Pd-Catalyzed Heck/Suzuki Sequence of Diarylmethyl Carbonates.

A palladium-catalyzed Mizoroki-Heck-type cyclization/Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling cascade of diarylmethyl carbonates with arylboronic acid derivatives has been developed to deliver the corresponding 1,2-disubstituted indanes in good yields with high diastereoselectivity (trans/cis > 20:1). The key to achieve the high chemoselectivity and stereoselectivity is the use of the tris[3,5-di(tert-butyl)-4-methoxyphenyl]phosphine (DTBMP) ligand of remote steric hindrance. Moreover, the asymmetric synthesis is possible by the enantiospecific, stereoinvertive reaction of the optically active starting substrates to form the chiral indanes with high stereochemical fidelity (>98% es).