With the support of the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program, Professor Richard C. Larock, of the Department of Chemistry at Iowa State University, is studying novel palladium migration chemistry. Intramolecular palladium migration from an alkyl group to an arene or from an aryl group to another aryl group in biphenyl derivatives, followed by subsequent functionalization, offers promise for the synthesis of a variety of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heterocycles. Professor Larock is exploring the generality and scope of these novel migration/functionalization processes. Palladium also migrates "through space" from a vinylic position to an aryl position, affording access to 9-alkylidenefluorenes. Additional migration reactions can lead to synthetically useful pi-allylpalladium complexes, acylpalladium intermediates, and imidoylpalladium species.
Palladium is arguably the single most versatile metal employed in modern organic synthesis. A remarkable array of organopalladium species have been generated and shown to undergo a multitude of synthetically useful processes. This versatility is being broadened still further by the work of Professor Richard C. Larock, of the Department of Chemistry at Iowa State University. With the support of the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program, Professor Larock is exploring novel reactions in which easily accessible organopalladium species undergo rearrangement through migration of the palladium atom to new sites within a molecule. In this way, new intermediates are generated, from which may be prepared a variety of cyclic organic compounds. By virtue of the unique structures afforded by these reaction sequences, new synthetic strategies for the preparation of the complex molecules forming the basis of the modern chemical industry are presented.
