Qiyuan He, Yilin Lu, Tao Sheng, Nikita Chekshin, Jie-Lun Yan, Tao Zhang, J.-Q. Yu
Bridged bicyclic frameworks are valuable in medicinal chemistry but difficult to access from simple saturated precursors. In situ generation of cyclic 1,3-dienes from unactivated carboxylic acids remains challenging. Now it has been shown that ligand-guided Pd(II) C–H activation enables multi-step diene formation for highly selective formal Diels–Alder reactions.