Effective Palladium(Ⅱ) Catalyst for Oxypalladation of Alkene

1Introduction A variety of Pd( Ⅱ )-catalyzed oxidative transformations of alkenes with oxygen nucleophiles are catalyzed by PdX2(X=OAc, Cl, etc) with CuXn(n =1 or 2) under O2 [1]. In the so-called Wacker catalyst of such,Pd(OAc)2 is less reactive compared to PdCl2. In an attempt to increase the reactivity of Pd(OAc)2, we have now found that tuning of Cu site with catechol gives an intriguing reactivity to Pd(OAc)2, which is unprecedented in the chemistry of palladium.