Tao Cheng’s work has been published in Org. Biomol. Chem.

Palladium catalyzed acetoxylation of benzylic C–H bonds using a bidentate picolinamide directing group

Tao Cheng,   Weiyu Yin,   Yi Zhang,   Yingnan Zhang and  Yong Huang*, Org. Biomol. Chem. 2014,12, 1405-1411

A general palladium catalyzed acetoxylation of benzylic C–H bonds has been developed. Picolinamides serve as an excellent directing group for the C–H activation of benzylic methyls. A wide range of 2-amino benzyl alcohol analogues were synthesized in good yields. The products demonstrated broad synthetic utilities toward various benzo-fused heterocycles. Mechanistic studies revealed the key rate-limiting C–H insertion step, which could be affected by the substitution pattern of the parent arene.