Table 1 |.

Reaction discovery and optimization.

Entry	Variations from the “standard conditions”	Yield of 4a (%)a	Yield of 4a’ (%)a
1	none	74 (68b)	15
2	other electrophile instead of 2a	listed below	listed below
3	No Pd	0	0
4	Pd(OAc)2 instead of PdCl2	45	11
5	No L1	14	<5
6	PPh3 instead of L1	65	16
7	P(2-pyr)3 instead of L1	26	8
8	No N1	0	77
9	simple NBE (N2) instead of N1	5	6
10	N1 (100 mol%)	61	17
11	N1 (50 mol%)	46	23
12	No pyridine	28	24

Reaction conditions: 1a (0.10 mmol), 2a (0.15 mmol), 3a (0.11 mmol), PdCl₂ (0.01 mmol), ligand (0.02 mmol), NBE (0.15 mmol), pyridine (1.0 mmol), Cs₂CO₃ (0.25 mmol), 1,4-dioxane (1.0 mL), 100 °C, 24 h.

^aYield was determined by ¹H NMR using dibromomethane as the internal standard.

^bIsolated yield.