Palladium-catalyzed allylic substitution reaction: oxidative addition versus dissociation in an olefin–palladium(0) complex

The reaction behavior of a transient olefin–palladium(0) complex after the first allylation was studied. Highly efficient palladium-catalyzed cascade double alkylation of a diallylic substrate is achieved by tuning the ligands. As a result, bidentate ligands which could form cyclic catalysts with a four-methylene bridge between two phosphorus atoms were effective for high selectivity and catalytic activity.