Irradiation-induced palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative desaturation enabled by a dual ligand system

Generation of alkenes through decarboxyolefination of alkane carboxylates has significant synthetic value in view of the easy availability of a variety of carboxylic acids and the synthetic versatility of alkenes. Herein we report that palladium catalysts under irradiation with blue LEDs (440 nm) catalyze decarboxylative desaturation of a variety of aliphatic carboxylates to generate aliphatic alkenes, styrenes, enol ethers, enamides, and peptide enamides under mild conditions. The selection of a dual phosphine ligand system is the key enabler for the successful development of this reaction. The Pd-catalyzed decarboxylative desaturation is utilized to achieve a three-step divergent synthesis of Chondriamide A and Chondriamide C in overall 68% yield from simple starting materials. Mechanistic studies suggest that, distinct from palladium catalysis under thermal condition, irradiation-induced palladium catalysis involves irradiation-induced single-electron transfer and dynamic ligand-dissociation/association process to allow two phosphine ligand to work synergistically.