The use of palladium complexes in highly selective multistep organic synthesis

Palladium complexes are versatile catalysts for the selective construction of organic molecules. The use of a model system containing a norbornyl-palladium bond stable toward β-hydrogen elimination allows the formation of a variety of molecules. Carbon monoxide is a particularly advantageous building block in these multistep reactions, because it helps to induce the formation of various types of carbon-carbon bonds. Some palladium-catalyzed multistep reactions, which proceed in sequence and have a common initial step,i.e., oxidative addition, are described.