Chemoselective Alkylation of Aminoacetophenones with Alcohols by Using a Palladacycle‐Phosphine Catalyst

The development of efficient and environmentally benign palladacycle-phosphine catalyzed process to enable the formation of chemoselective C-alkylated or N-alkylated aminoacetophenones with alcohols is described. This methodology proved to be tunable by variation of the base and the temperature, which allows for the isolation of structurally diverse C-alkylated and N-alkylated aminoacetophenones. Moreover, this methodology has been applied to the synthesis of biologically and industrially important donepezil.