Combination of transition metal Rh-catalysis and tautomeric catalysis through a bi-functional ligand for one-pot tandem methoxycarbonylation-aminolysis of olefins towards primary amides

Combination of transition metal catalysis with organocatalysis in ways of synergetic catalysis, cooperative catalysis, or/and sequential catalysis has been emerged as a powerful strategy to promote organic transformations that cannot be achieved by each individual independently. Herein, a new protocol for the synthesis of primary amides from olefins, CO and NH₃ through one-pot tandem methoxycarbonylation-aminolys was presented over a bi-functional ligand (L1) based rhodium catalyst with functions of co-catalysis. L1 is composed of the phosphino-fragment and the amino-/imino- tautomeric moiety. Then L1-based Rh-catalytic system demonstrated a combination of Rh-P transition metal catalysis and the tautomeric catalysis. In this tandem methoxycarbonylation-aminolysis, NH₃ also served as a ligand to work together with the phosphino-fragment to synergetically modify the performance of Rh-catalyst responsible for the first-step methoxycarbonylation of olefin to generate the esters, and the Rh-tailed tautomeric catalyst was in charge of the subsequent aminolysis to generate the targeted primary amides.