Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling of potassium alkoxyethyltrifluoroborates: access to aryl/heteroarylethyloxy motifs.

The introduction of an alkoxyethyl moiety onto aromatic substructures has remained a long-standing challenge for synthetic organic chemists. The main reasons are the inherent instability of alkoxyethylmetallic species and the lack of general procedures to access them. A new method utilizing a cross-coupling strategy based on the exceptional properties of organotrifluoroborates has been developed, and the method allows an easy and efficient installation of this unit on a broad range of aryl and heteroaryl bromides.