An unprecedented deammoniative condensation reaction of primary allylic amines with nonallylic amines has been developed through CN bond cleavage. In the presence of 5 mol% palladium diacetate, 10 mol% 1,4-bis(diphenylphosphino)butane (dppb), and 5 mol% p-toluenesulfonic acid (TsOH), a range of α-unbranched primary allylic amines smoothly underwent deammoniative condensation with nonallylic amines in an α-selective fashion to give structurally diverse secondary and tertiary amines in good to excellent yields and E selectivity. Replacing dppb with racemic 2,2′-bis(diphenylphosphino)-1,1′-binaphthyl (BINAP) permitted the deammoniative condensation of enantioenriched α-chiral primary allylic amines with nonallylic amines to proceed with complete retention of configuration. Electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrometric analysis of the reaction mixture permitted the identification of some π-allylpalladium intermediates, and plausible mechanisms have been proposed to account for the regioselectivity and stereospecificity of the deammoniative condensation reaction.

The rearrangement/oxidation of N,N-disubstituted anilines and the formal dehydrogenative cross-coupling of diarylmethanols with aniline derivatives have been developed for the preparation of symmetric and unsymmetric functionalized triarylmethanols. Both reactions proceed smoothly in trifluoroacetic acid in the presence of an inexpensive oxidant (manganese dioxide or potassium persulfate) and a catalytic amount of palladium diacetate to give a range of functionalized triarylmethanols in moderate to good yields and with extremely high regioselectivity. The two unprecedented reactions involve tandem formation of geminal CC and CO bonds, and they are synthetically useful, atom-efficient, and operationally simple.

An efficient cross-coupling reaction of N-allylic sulfonimides with organozinc reagents has been developed. In the presence of 1 mol-% of Pd₂(dba)₃, a range of N-allylic sulfonimides smoothly couple with various organozinc reagents at room temperature to give the corresponding (E)-alkene products in moderate to excellent yields and with good to exclusive α-selectivity. It is noteworthy that allyl ether, benzyl ether, and ester are tolerated under the reaction conditions.