Palladium-Catalyzed Methylation and Arylation of sp2 and sp3 C—H Bonds in Simple Carboxylic Acids.

The use of preformed sodium carboxylates as substrates led to the first observation of facile Pd-insertions into sp3 β-C−H bonds in simple aliphatic acids. Consequently, Pd-catalyzed methylation and arylation of o-C−H bonds in benzoic acids and β-C−H bonds in aliphatic acids using either a phenylboronate, methylboronic acid, or ArI have been achieved via a C−H activation/C−C coupling sequence.