Stereospecific Palladium-Catalyzed C–H Arylation of Pyroglutamic Acid Derivatives at the C3 Position Enabled by 8-Aminoquinoline as a Directing Group

An efficient and stereospecific Pd-catalyzed protocol for the C–H arylation of pyroglutamic acid derivatives that uses 8-aminoquinoline as a directing group is described. The reaction was shown to proceed efficiently with a variety of aryl and heteroaryl iodides bearing different functional groups, giving C3-arylated cis products in good to high yields. Removal of the 8-aminoquinoline unit from these C–H arylation products enables access to synthetically useful cis and trans pyroglutamic acid-based building blocks.