Palladium-catalyzed highly diastereoselective cyclic carbopalladation-carbonylative esterification tandem reaction of iododienes and iodoarylalkenes.

[formula: see text] Pd-catalyzed reaction of iododienes and iodoarylalkenes represented by 1, 8, and 10 under 1 atm of CO and a small amount of O2 in the presence of a base, e.g., NEt3, as well as MeOH and H2O in DMF can undergo a highly diastereoselective cyclic carbopalladation-carbonylative esterification tandem process (Type II C-Pd process) to give in high yields the corresponding ester-containing cyclization products, e.g., 2, 9, and 11, in as high as 98% diastereoselectivity.