Palladium-catalyzed Heck-type reaction of oximes with allylic alcohols: synthesis of pyridines and azafluorenones.

We describe herein a palladium-catalyzed Heck-type reaction of O-acetyl ketoximes and allylic alcohols to synthesise pyridines. This protocol allows the robust synthesis of pyridines and azafluorenones in good to excellent yields with tolerance of various functional groups under mild conditions. The reaction is supposed to go through an oxidative addition of oximes to palladium(0) complexes, generating an alkylideneamino-palladium(II) species, which is utilized as a key intermediate to capture the nonbiased alkenes for carbon-carbon bond formation.