Catalytic Behavior of Mono‐N‐Protected Amino‐Acid Ligands in Ligand‐Accelerated C−H Activation by Palladium(II)

Mono‐N‐protected amino acids (MPAAs) are increasingly common ligands in Pd‐catalyzed C−H functionalization reactions. Previous studies have shown how these ligands accelerate catalytic turnover by facilitating the C−H activation step. Here, it is shown that MPAA ligands exhibit a second property commonly associated with ligand‐accelerated catalysis: the ability to support catalytic turnover at substoichiometric ligand‐to‐metal ratios. This catalytic role of the MPAA ligand is characterized in stoichiometric C−H activation and catalytic C−H functionalization reactions. Palladacycle formation with substrates bearing carboxylate and pyridine directing groups exhibit a 50–100‐fold increase in rate when only 0.05 equivalents of MPAA are present relative to PdII. These and other mechanistic data indicate that facile exchange between MPAAs and anionic ligands coordinated to PdII enables a single MPAA to support C−H activation at multiple PdII centers. Rapid exchange of mono‐N‐protected amino‐acid (MPAA) ligands with other carboxylate ligands plays a key role in the ligand‐accelerated catalysis observed in PdII‐catalyzed C−H functionalization reactions. The MPAA ligands are shown to play a catalytic role in PdII‐mediated C−H activation.