Pyridylic anions are soft nucleophiles in the palladium-catalyzed C(sp3)-H allylation of 4-alkylpyridines

We report a mild palladium-catalyzed method for the selective allylation of 4-alkylpyridines in which highly basic pyridylic anions behave as soft nucleophiles. This method exploits alkylidene dihydropyridines, which are semi-stable intermediates readily formed using a 'soft-enolization' approach, in a new mechanistic manifold for decarboxylative allylation. Notably, the catalytic generation of pyridylic anions results in a substantially broader functional group tolerance compared to other pyridine allylation methods. Experimental and theoretical mechanistic studies strongly suggest that pyridylic anions are indeed the active nucleophiles in these reactions, and that they participate in an outer-sphere reductive elimination step. This finding establishes a new pK(a) boundary of 35 for soft nucleophiles in transition metal-catalyzed allylations.