Racemic su
lfur ch
loro-bridged pa
lladacyc
les (
rac-
4b-
6b), derived from the orthopa
lladationof (1-
tert-buty
lsu
lfany
lethy
l)benzene, (1-methy
lsu
lfany
lethy
l)benzene, and 2-(1-
tert-buty
lsu
lfany
lethy
l)naphtha
lene (
rac-
1-
3), have been synthesized in good yie
lds using pa
lladiumacetate as the meta
lation agent and fo
llowed by reaction with LiC
l. Pa
lladacyc
les
rac-
4band
rac-
6b have been iso
lated as sing
le isomers, whereas
rac-
5b has been obtained as amixture of two diastereoisomers (3:1). Variab
le-temperature
1H NMR showed that theS-
t-Bu pa
lladacyc
le
4b is configurationa
lly stab
le over a
large range of temperatures (from-20 to 100
![](/images/entities/deg.gif)
C). On the other hand, S-Me ana
logue
5b undergoes faci
le su
lfur pyramida
linversion with an energy barrier of 18 kca
l/mo
l. Moreover, the optica
lly active (1-a
lky
lsufany
lethy
l)benzenes, (
R)-
1 and (
R)-
2, respective
ly, have been prepared in 91% and 97%ee, respective
ly, from the reaction of sodium methy
lthio
late and sodium
tert-buty
lthio
late, respective
ly, with non-racemic (
S)-(-)-1-pheny
lethano
l (93-99% ee). The reactionof (1-a
lky
lsufany
lethy
l)benzenes (
R)-
1 and (
R)-
2 with pa
lladium acetate in acetic acid at 90
![](/images/entities/deg.gif)
C affords the corresponding orthopa
lladated compound (
R,
R)-
4a and
(R,
R and
R,
S)-
5a,respective
ly. The mo
lecu
lar structure of the acetato-bridged dimer (
R,
R)-
4a has beendetermined by means of an X-ray diffraction ana
lysis. The pa
lladacyc
le (
R,
R)-
4b has shownto be exce
llent cata
lyst precursor, in terms of cata
lytic activity, for the ary
lation of 3,4-dihydro-2
H-pyrane under mi
ld reaction conditions, however without any asymmetricinduction.