Theoretical Studies on The Mechanism of Pd2+-Catalyzed Regioselective C-H Alkylation of Indole With MesICH2CF3OTf

Abstract

The reaction mechanism of Pd2+-catalyzed regioselective C–H alkylation of indole with MesICH2CF3OTf has been investigated by the density functional theory calculations. The reaction mechanism mainly contains four steps：C-H activation, oxidative addition, reductive elimination and ligands substitution. From our calculations, we find that the C-H activation step was realized by the acetate anion (-OAc) assisted CMD process and the transition state of C-H activation process is a square planar configuration. Moreover, the calculation results suggest that the regioselectivity of C-H bond alkylation of indole with MesICH2CF3OTf can be ascribed to the different stability of the CMD transition states in C-H activation step and different acidities of C-H bonds.