Palladium-Catalyzed Carbonylative Transformation of Phenols via In-Situ Triflyl Exchangement

Abstract Phenols are attractive starting materials due to their ready availability. Herein, we developed a novel method on palladium-catalyzed alkoxycarbonylation of phenols. By using commercially available Pd(OAc)2 and PtBu3·HBF4 as the catalyst system and aryl triflates as triflyl source to activate the other phenol, various carboxylic acid esters were prepared in moderate to good yields via Tf exchange and then O-Tf bond cleavage. Notably, phenols generated from aryl triflates after Tf transfer or other additional aliphatic alcohols can all be employed as nucleophiles to synthesize the corresponding esters.