Patrick Daly-Dee, Luke Davies, Graham J Tizzard, Simon J Coles, Sebastien Monfette, Robin B Bedford
In contrast to alkoxide salts, siloxide salts MOSiR3 (M = Na, Li) can be used to good effect as activators for B2pin2 in the iron-catalyzed borylation of aryl chloride substrates, in many cases giving results comparable to or better than those obtained previously with highly pyrophoric t BuLi acting as an activator. Preliminary mechanistic investigations reveal a protracted induction period, most likely associated with precatalyst reduction, and these also suggest that the NaOSi t BuMe-activated B2pin2 is not as reducing as the equivalent t BuLi-activated species.