Highly efficient palladium-catalyzed hydrostannation of ethyl ethynyl ether

The palladium-catalyzed hydrostannation of acetylenes is widely exploited in organic synthesis as a means of forming vinyl stannanes for use in palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions. Application of this methodology to ethyl ethynyl ether results in an enol ether that is challenging to isolate from the crude reaction mixture because of incompatibility with typical silica gel chromatography. Reported here is a highly efficient procedure for the palladium-catalyzed hydrostannation of ethyl ethynyl ether using 0.1% palladium(0) catalyst and 1.0 equiv of tributyltin hydride. The product obtained is a mixture of regioisomers that can be carried forward with exclusive reaction of the β-isomer. This method is highly reproducible, relative to previously reported procedures, it is more economical and involves a more facile purification procedure.