Construction of Bulky Ligand Libraries by Ru (II) -Catalyzed P (III) -Assisted ortho-C-H Secondary Alkylation.

Modification of commercially available biaryl monophosphine ligands via ruthenium ^(II) -catalyzed P ^(III) -directed-catalyzed ortho C-H secondary alkylation is described. The use of highly ring-strained norbornene as a secondary alkylating reagent is the key to this transformation. A series of highly bulky ligands with a norbornyl group were obtained in excellent yields. The modified ligands with secondary alkyl group outperformed common substituted phosphines in the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction at a ppm mole level of Pd catalyst.