Palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative alkoxycarbonylation of potassium aryltrifluoroborates with potassium oxalate monoesters

Palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative alkoxycarbonylation of potassium aryltrifluoroborates with potassium oxalate monoesters in the presence of potassium persulfate was performed under mild conditions. A number of benzoyl esters with a wide variety of substituents at different positions were efficiently synthesized with this method. Mechanism of the palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative carbonylation of aryltrifluoroborates was studied, and a radical-mediated Pd(ii)/Pd(iv) catalytic cycle was proposed.