The Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction of 2-bromo-1,3-dienes derived from alkyl aldehydes, especially with Cl
2Pd(DPEphos) as a catalyst, proceeds with clean stereoinversion of the Br-bearing C=C bond to produce in high yields and in high stereoselectivity (
97-98%) conjugated
Z,
E dienes of potentially high utility in the synthesis of complex natural products. The observed stereoinversion cannot be readily accommodated by the widely accepted
-
-
rearrangement mechanism for isomerization of ordinary allylpalladium derivatives.