Practical Intermolecular Hydroarylation of Terminal Alkenes via Reductive Heck Coupling.

The hydroarylation of alkenes is an attractive approach to construct carbon-carbon (C-C) bonds from abundant and structurally diverse starting materials. Herein we report a palladiumcatalyzed reductive Heck hydroarylation of unactivated and heteroatom-substituted terminal alkenes with an array of (hetero)aryl iodides. The reaction is anti-Markovnikov selective and tolerates a wide variety of functional groups on both the alkene and (hetero)aryl coupling partners. Additionally, applications of this method to complex molecule diversifications were demonstrated. Deuteriumlabeling experiments are consistent with a mechanism in which the key alkylpalladium(II) intermediate is intercepted with formate and undergoes a decarboxylation/C-H reductive elimination cascade to afford the saturated product and turn over the cycle.