Palladium-catalyzed oxidative acetoxylation of benzylic C-H bond using bidentate auxiliary.

Pd(OAc)2-catalyzed oxidative acetoxylation of benzylic C-H bonds utilizing a bidentate system has been explored. A variety of picolinoyl- or quinoline-2-carbonyl-protected toluidine derivatives react with PhI(OAc)2 in the presence of Pd(OAc)2 to afford the acetoxylated products in synthetically useful yields. A broad of functionalities, such as CH3, F, Cl, Br, I, COCH3, CO2Et, SO2CH3, and NO2, were tolerated. This transformation provides easy access to 2-hydroxymethylaniline derivatives.