Versatile Synthesis of 1,1-Diaryl-1-alkenes Using Vinylboronate Ester as a Platform

A sequence of double Mizoroki-Heck reaction of vinylboronate pinacol ester with aryl halides followed by Suzuki-Miyaura coupling of thus-generated (beta),(beta)-diarylvinylboronate esters with alkyl halides produces pharmaceutically important 1,1-diaryl-1-alkenes very efficiently. In the Pd-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura coupling step, the use of bulky electron-rich ligands such as P(t-Bu)2Me and PCy2(t-Bu) were found to be very effective.