Palladium-catalyzed amination of aryl dibromides with secondary amines: Synthetic and mechanistic aspects

Diaminobenzenes are obtained starting from m- and p-dibromobenzenes and secondary amines in the presence of Pd(dba)2/P(o-tolyl)3and sodium tert-butoxide in moderate to good yields. Reductive dehalogenation of aryl dibromides is a major side reaction under these conditions. The study of this reaction has shown that the formation of reductive dehalogenation products occurs according to two independent ways. The first one proceeds via the well-known β-hydride elimination from amido-coordinated palladium complexes. The second one involves the formation of hydrido palladium complexes from amino-coordinated derivatives. Although our results do not allow us to propose a detailed mechanistic scheme, they clearly show that the deprotonation step of the catalytic amination cycle has a major effect on the aminearene ratio.