Visible-light induced, palladium catalyzed alkylations of α,β-unsaturated acids with unactivated alkyl bromides are described. A variety of primary, secondary, and tertiary alkyl bromides are activated by the photoexcited palladium metal catalyst to provide a series of olefins at room temperature under mild reaction conditions. Mechanistic investigations and density functional theory (DFT) studies suggest that a photoinduced inner-sphere mechanism is operative in which a barrierless, single-electron transfer oxidative addition of the alkyl halide to Pd0 is key for the efficient transformation.
Keywords: DFT; alkyl halides; decarboxylation; palladium; visible-light.
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