Ligand-enabled palladium-catalyzed hydroesterification of vinyl arenes with high linear selectivity to access 3-arylpropanoate esters

Palladium-catalyzed linear-selective hydroesterification of vinyl arenes with alcohols enabled by diphosphine ligands derived from bis[2-(diphenylphosphino)ethyl]amides has been developed. A variety of 3-arylpropanoate esters were obtained in high yields and regioselectivity. The robustness of this methodology was further demonstrated by the efficient gram-scale synthesis of the ethyl 3-phenylpropanoate as a precursor to hydrocinnamic acid.