Modular Dual-Tasked C-H Methylation Via The Catellani Strategy

We report a dual-tasked methylation that is based on cooperative palladium/norbornene catalysis. Readily available (hetero)aryl halides (39 iodides and 4 bromides) and inexpensive MeOTs or trimethylphosphate are utilized as the substrates and methylating reagent, respectively. Six types of "ipso" terminations can modularly couple with this "ortho" C-H methylation to constitute a versatile methylation toolbox for preparing diversified methylated arenes. This toolbox features inexpensive methyl sources, excellent functional-group tolerance, simple reaction procedures, and scalability. Importantly, it can be uneventfully extended to isotope-labeled methylation by switching to the corresponding reagents CD3OTs or (CH3OTs)-C-13. Moreover, this toolbox can be applied to late-stage modification of biorelevant substrates with complete stereoretention. We believe these salient and practical features of our dual-tasked methylation toolbox will be welcomed by academic and industrial researchers.