Proximity effects in the palladium-catalyzed substitution of aryl fluorides

The aryl fluoride bond has long been considered inert toward Pd-catalyzed insertion reactions. This paper reports for the first time that aryl fluorides bearing an o-carboxylate group can undergo Pd-catalyzed couplings. On the basis of this computational study and subsequent experimental verifications of its predictions, we herein report that such reactions are facilitated by stabilization of the transition state by proximal oxyanions.