12/2014

The Stoltz, Zare and Houk group have brought a collaborative approach to deduce the mechanism of an asymmetric palladium-catalyzed conjugate addition of arylboronic acids to enone substrates.

DESI-MS identified some of the key intermediates of the catalytic cycle and helped to identify some of the reactivity trends observed in the substrates. A combination of DFT calculations and experimental observations helped confirm these conclusions.