Herein, we report a mild palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative allylic alkylation of allyl ester-substituted isoindolinone substrates to afford a variety of 3,3-disubstituted isoindolinone derivatives. The decarboxylative coupling reaction tolerates a range of functional groups, including ketones and alkenyl halides, and does not require protection of the isoindolinone nitrogen. Additionally, the reaction was found to proceed in near-quantitative yield for most substrates evaluated. Based on the isolation of competing cyclopropane and protonation products, a reaction mechanism is proposed.
Keywords: allylation; decarboxylative; isoindolinones; palladium-catalyzed.