An efficient palladium-catalyzed alkoxycarbonylation of aryl halides with phenols has been developed. Various aryl benzoates have been isolated in good to excellent yields with formic acid as the CO source.
Seventeen model phenyl esters of 4-substituted benzoic acids were synthesised by the reaction of substituted benzoyl chlorides with phenol in aqueous alkaline solutions (Schotten-Baumann reaction), in pyridine (Einhorn reaction), or by the reaction of substituted benzoic acids with phosphorus oxychloride. Structures and purity of the model compounds were confirmed by 1H NMR and 13C NMR spectroscopy as well as by HPLC and elemental analysis. Phenyl 4-aminobenzoate was synthesised by reduction of phenyl 4-nitrobenzoate in methanol on palladium. Kinetics of base-catalysed hydrolysis of model phenyl esters occurring by the BAc2 mechanism were measured by UV spectrophotometry in 50% (v/v) aqueous dimethyl sulfoxide solutions at 25 °C under pseudo-first-order conditions, (