Palladium-Catalyzed Disilylation and Digermanylation of Alkene Tethered Aryl Halides: Direct Access to Versatile Silylated and Germanylated Heterocycles

A method for the palladium-catalyzed disilylation and digermanylation of aryl halides bearing a tethered alkene has been developed. The mechanism is thought to proceed via Heck-type cyclization, followed by C-H activation, resulting in a reactive fused-palladacycle. A wide variety of disilylated and digermanylated heterocycles are obtained from readily available aryl halides in high yields with various functional groups. Moreover, the developed protocol proved to be highly diastereoselective.