A Practical Crystalline Carbon Monoxide Surrogate

Manabe et al. have reported that 2,4,6-Trichlorophenyl formate is a highly reactive and easily accessible crystalline carbon monoxide (CO) surrogate in synthetic organic chemistry.^1-3) 2,4,6-Trichlorophenyl formate undergoes facile decarbonylation in the presence of trialkylamine to afford CO and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol. The in situ generated CO and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol are successfully applied to the Pd-catalyzed carbonylation of aryl/alkenyl halides and triflates to give their 2,4,6-trichlorophenol ester. The obtained trichlorophenyl esters can be readily converted to a variety of carboxylic acid derivatives by using various nucleophiles.